Fri, Jul 23, 2010

Editor: The July 17 Vincy Unity Picnic at Browns Bay Park attracted over 16,000 Vincy families and friends from across Canada and USA, completely booking all hotels in Mallory Town, 1000 Islands Ontario, to accommodate those who arrived on the Friday for the popular 1000 Islands boat cruise and a pre-picnic bash.{{more}}

One non-Vincy picnic observer declares the picnic “a stress free affair”, another calls it “a treasure island with no phone, no door bell, no TV, no radio for a day”. Such are the objectives of the six-member picnic committee volunteers who are basically exhausted, yet can display a feeling of satisfaction.

Volunteers as we know are unpaid helpers with much affection for the cause on which their time is spent. An impromptu picnic of some forty years ago has today grown to almost 18,000 peaceful people congregating at a Lakefront Park listening to music, dancing, calypso and gospel singers, food sharing and drinking, Bar-B-Q, participating in adult and children games, fishing and swimming, walking through the various pathways in hope of running into long lost school mates, friends and relatives. Forming new relationships, re-igniting of old flames, catching up with lost times.

Parking tickets for the main grounds were sold out within 1 week of release; rumor has it that reservations for tickets were kept by some ticket agents months before the mid-May circulation. Several buses were leased by private individuals for their family reunions at the park. It has become the annual event not to be missed. The children’s game hour between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. is a joy to watch: bag race, tug-a-war, egg and spoon, mini gulf, largest bubble and the highlight was the

cracking of the Disney World Piñata filled with candies; gifts were rewarded to the winners and all others.

The after picnic collection of garbage (beer bottles and cans left on the grounds) was visibly excessive, compared with previous years. One can only wonder the reason for this as two garbage bags were handed to each family at the park’s entrance. While the Ontario alcohol bylaw has not been enforced over the past years, one can only hope that the public display of beer bottles and cans will not create negotiation obstacles and a price increase for the 2011 picnic.

The cost of running the picnic all depends on the public

sector unionized manpower clean-up crew, maintenance, and insurance.

Remarked a picnic rebel: “Man, seeing we Vincy Flag at the gate of the largest Vincy

picnic in the world is enough incentive to want to keep the park clean; make possible negotiation advantages to we Unity Picnic committee for next year”.

Elma Gabriel
Community Advocate