A longtime staple of the event season in downtown Okotoks won’t be held in its usual location this summer.
Instead of on Olde Towne streets, a lack of volunteers means the Okotoks Show and Shine is moving to the area around Seaman Stadium. The show will go ahead on Aug. 20 in the stadium's parking lot and along Don Seaman Way.
Show and Shine co-chair Blair Davies said organizers were faced with the choice of moving the show or cancelling it.
“We had to move this year because we don’t have the volunteers to run downtown,” Davies said.
The Show and Shine has been held downtown since 2009 and Davies hopes the move is temporary.
“Our goal is to have it back downtown,” he said. “We are not planning to move this as a long-term situation.”
Organized by the Kinsmen Club of Okotoks, the Show and Shine is the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
“This is a charity event as well as a car show, and really in our minds as Kinsmen, it's a charity event first,” Davies said.
Last year’s event raised money for the 2023 Alberta Summer Games, the Okotoks Food Bank and children’s lunch programs.
The new location requires fewer hands as there are only two entrance points and fewer logistical hurdles than operating downtown, organizers said.
The Olde Towne event spanned Elizabeth, McRae and North Railway streets from Northridge Drive to Lineham Avenue and other streets downtown.
Kinsmen president Mike Rocheleau said every intersection downtown needs a volunteer to monitor it, and the long stretch of road provides other challenges that require a lot of volunteer power.
“We're trying to somewhat downsize, to move it to a location that's a little bit more manageable,” Rocheleau said. “But we just need the manpower, or the labour, to move it back to where we want it.”
Davies said people don’t need to become a member of the Kinsmen Club to help.
“You can support the Kinsmen on this one event,” Davies said.
Rocheleau said he hopes to start organizing next year's show in early fall.
“There's still a whole bunch of things that happen ahead of time," he said.
Typically, the show draws over 10,000 attendees to see about 500 vehicles that are entered each year.
