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The Beckett's Landing Community Association (BLCA) is located in the far south of Ottawa near the North Grenville border which is the Rideau River. Our community of Beckett's Landing is like Burritt's Rapids and has an identity that exists on both sides of the river border. There are approximately 1000 residents in our Ottawa area around the hamlet of Beckett's Landing with another 500 in North Grenville. We typically draw people from both sides of the river for our events and hope to have from 100 to 300 attend various parts of the day's events. The BLCA is a non-profit association which meets monthly and has held a formal Annual General Meeting (AGM) twice since it formed in 2007. Activities of the BLCA have been funded by yearly membership fees. The officers are elected at the AGM. We contacted the City of Ottawa Events Central Office (Jill Merkley) with regard to this application.
The Event for which we are seeking support is being called Beckett's Day in honour of the family that originally settled the area and operated the ferry across the Rideau River for many years beginning in the late 1700s. Some of the colorful history of this area is discussed in our BLCA web site at www.beckettslanding.ca which I recommend the reviewers to view. The BLCA is in the process of creating background historical material which we plan to publish to create a greater awareness of local history in our community. As part of this process the recently erected hamlet signs which can be seen on the web site will feature in this first Beckett's Day event with a formal unveiling of the signs by participating local dignitaries and the historical societies in our area from Rideau Township and North Grenville.
For maximum impact we are planning to re-enact a crossing of the Rideau with a boat characteristic of this period called a York boat if one is available. It would be rowed across the river with passengers dressed in period costumes to land on the north bank of the river just west of the Rideau River bridge on HWY #44 that comes out of Kemptville. Our base of activity will be at the Rideau Family Restaurant which is close to this landing place and through the property of the nursery, Floral Design. These two enterprises are providing insurance coverage for the event as well as other in-kind support.
We will advertise this event widely through flyers, signs and coverage in the local papers and expect to receive strong support from local residents and from those in the surrounding rural area. Since the closing of the St Paul's Anglican Church in Beckett's Landing in June 2008, there has been no centre for community focus other than the BLCA and we are trying to promote local civic pride and participation through events such as the proposed Beckett's Day
. We are also planning local tours on Beckett's Day of the pioneer cemetery at St Paul's, the nursery greenhouses, as well as of Ludlow's Boat Works (which at one time was a cheese factory) and of other local artistic activities such as pottery making. The event will take place very close to the Rideau River Provincial Park and we expect that the event will be promoted by the Park authorities as well as by Parks Canada who operated the Rideau Canal as an event that they can offer to boaters and campers on the 24th of May long-weekend.
We also plan to have local live music throughout the day including some pipers for the river crossing ceremony and in the evening at dusk to have fireworks out on the river.
The funds sought represent about 40% of the estimated total cash and in-kind support required for this event.
This will be the First Annual Beckett's Day event and the BLCA will assess the success of the event with the hope that it can become an annual event in our area in the "deep south" of Ottawa.
We are looking for volunteers to help organize and run Beckett’s Day. The above brief description was provided to the City of Ottawa City Community Events funding group in hopes of receiving support for organizing this event.
Please contact one of the BLCA people below if you are interested.
Joyce Wood at joyce@beckettslanding.ca
Linda Ludlow at linda@beckettslanding.ca
Bill Adams at bill@beckettslanding.ca
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