MANITOULIN—It’s mid October, Thanksgiving is behind us and it’s time to announce the 2017 winning communities in The Expositor’s annual Harvest Glory Days contest. This friendly competition is among Island communities and the criterion is simple: decorating in the spirit of fall colours and the Thanksgiving season.
A panoply of Island decorating was published in the paper the week prior to Thanksgiving Weekend, together with a directory, by community, of addresses that had registered with The Expositor Office by way of encouraging residents and visitors to take a look at the communities’ efforts.
But there is always more decorating after Thanksgiving and so the final judging was not completed until this past weekend.
In a nutshell, the Harvest Glory Days decorating concept is becoming, each year, a bigger event with more communities getting more involved from the grass roots “decorating the front porch” right up to a myriad of decorated downtowns.
This year, for example, Mindemoya stepped up and the results show for anyone who has taken the time to drive around the residential areas of town as well as the main thoroughfares, especially the main downtown intersection that sports fall decorations on every corner!
Likewise, Sheguiandah this year sports more decorations with every street sign in the community boasting a hand-made harvest wreath and there are, as in Mindemoya, more homes sporting seasonal decorations.
This is the fifth year of this fun festival and the three communities judged, in their respective categories (large town, middle-sized town, small town) to be best decorated in the Harvest Glory Days theme are: Manitowaning (large town), Providence Bay (middle-sized town) and Silver Water (small town). Congratulations to the winners, all repeats as it happens, so they will receive a 2017 leaf to add to their community spirit signs. (The signs are the prizes awarded to the best-decorated communities, with space available to show wins in subsequent years.)
But other communities should take heart: Sheguiandah is on the way to giving Providence Bay competition for middle-size town and Mindemoya is showing all the right signs of offering a challenge to Manitowaning in the large town category in up coming years.
Among the small towns, Silver Water sports decorating everywhere and any future challenges will have to bear this in mind!
Downtown Little Current looks wonderful with all the lampposts decorated and there is a nice display at the swing bridge entrance to the town.
Similarly, Gore Bay shows enterprise through the town year after year and at Wiikwemkoong, there were a record number of colourfully decorated residences and businesses this year.
Kagawong always does a good job and along its Main Street (the old bikes are a treat) and the Chocolate Works displays and Old Mill building were a delight as usual.
For everyone who has participated in every Island community, at farm gates along sideroads and along our main highways, you are all doing a wonderful job of brightening an already glorious season and bringing many a smile (people tell the paper this) to the faces of passersby.
Congratulations to the winning communities and to Mindemoya and Sheguiandah, the runners-up in their respective categories.
