MANITOULIN—It’s less than two weeks to the official first day of the fall season but nature has her own schedule and, on Manitoulin, many maple trees are already beginning to sport their autumn colours.
That means it’s also time for Manitoulin’s communities, and the individual homeowners, businesspeople and local institutions that comprise these communities, to start working on their seasonal displays for The Expositor Office’s annual Harvest Glory Days friendly inter-community competition.
This is the eighth year for Harvest Glory Days where the Island communities in three categories (large towns, mid-sized towns and small towns) decorate in the fall harvest theme.
And, in this case, size matters; quantity, at any rate, as the communities in Manitoulin’s First Nations and municipalities that show the most decorating efforts and initiative are rewarded by a large highway sign that attests to their community spirit, with lots of space on the signs for further recognition in future years.
Last year, for example, Mindemoya made a breakthrough in the large town category and has the sign, mounted to the town’s official welcome sign at the Highway 551 entrance, proudly announcing this fact.
The year before, Gore Bay was also acknowledged in this category and kept up its great decorating habits again in 2020 so a new leaf is being added to its sign.
Manitowaning was the inaugural winner in this category and volunteers and homeowners there have maintained the tradition through seven years.
In the mid-sized town category, volunteers in Sheguiandah have ensured their community shows off fall decorations in a winning way for the past three years.
In the small community category, Silver Water has been hard to beat as virtually every residence in town decorates and the sign there is nearly full of annual acknowledgments.
What The Expositor wants from you is the address of your decorated property and we need this by 4 pm on Friday, October 1 so we can publish your coordinates in the Wednesday, October 6 issue of The Expositor and also on our website, Manitoulin.com, in the week before Thanksgiving Weekend.
We want to encourage Island people and visitors alike to enjoy a drive around our Island and take in the decorating efforts.
This also helps the Harvest Glory Days judges to make their choices about best decorated communities in the Harvest Glory Days theme. The Expositor Office looks forward to awarding a sign to a new deserving community and to adding ‘leaves’ to ones that have maintained their winning ways.
Please register your home or business online at manitoulin.com/hgd or call Debbie at 705-368-2744. Our fax machine still works too, 705-368-3822. You can also email services@manitoulin.com.
As usual, we will have an online gallery of many decorated homes/businesses/institutions, groups by community.
Questions? Call or email The Expositor at the contacts shown above.
