Come enjoy a barbecue of local fare on a beautiful Nanoose Bay farm this Saturday, complete with a local band and plenty of animals big and small, all for a good cause.
The Tastes of Land and Sea is a fundraiser by The Nature Trust (TNT) of B.C. to try and top up their efforts for Moorecroft Regional Park.
TNT began a campaign to assist the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) in the acquisition and restoration of Moorecroft just over a year ago, with an end date of October 2012. Tim Clermont said The Nature Trust agreed to put forth their best efforts to raise $500,000 but the total sits at around $100,000 to date. Clermont hopes this event will help.
“This is going to be the big community event that hopefully will be able to generate some more funds to put towards Moorecroft,” he said, adding they realize they won’t meet their initial goal.
Clermont said the Nature Trust would like to thank a group of ladies called “the Moorecrofters” who have put in a tireless effort to help the campaign, putting in more than 1,000 hours, raising awareness, and sourcing money like the recent $500 contribution from Nanoose Bay Coastal Community Credit Union. A couple of ladies from the Moorecrofters, Vicki Knight and Jo Graham, have been doing a lot of work to bring this event to fruition, Clermont said.
Owners of the ranch, Kim and Trish Mauriks, offered to host the event on their 145-acre property where people will see sheep, newborn lambs, chickens, baby chicks, turkeys, horses and bunnies. Trish said they used to live beside Moorecroft and often wandered through the property. She wanted to help out the cause by hosting the event on their property and donating meat for the barbecue.
“It just seems like the right thing to do,” she said.
Natural Gift Seafoods in Nanoose Bay is donating salmon for the barbecue and there will be burgers and other local treasures. Thrifty Foods and Quality Foods will be supplying the fixings.
Local band Celtic Chaos will be performing their energetic music of traditional Scottish and Irish tunes, local artists will be displaying their art and there will be over 40 silent auction items like Fairwinds Golf passes, kayak adventures and restaurant gift cards to bid on.
The Tastes of Land and Sea happens this Saturday, Sept. 8 from 12 to 4 p.m. at 2632 Northwest Bay Road. Tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for kids and under 6 are free. Tickets are available at Mulberry Bush Bookstores, online at www.naturetrust.bc.ca or by calling toll free 1-866-288-7878.