Summer Event Cancellations – A Note from Guy
Many organizations and entities are grieving the loss of events as we look forward to the summer season. We as the chamber are not immune to these feelings. The Whatcom County Health Department recently recommended the cancellation of large summer events that draw thousands of attendees. Each organization and community is determining their own plan of action. It is important to keep each other as safe as possible. These large events are often the identity of a community or lead to the creation of community. Our current definition of “community” during this pandemic is simply everyone doing their part to keep each other safe.
The cancellations of these events have impacted our local chambers of commerce substantially. When we look throughout the county, so many of our large events are produced by our nine Chambers of Commerce. And many of our local charitable organizations rely on funding of major events as well. This summer will definitely be a tough summer for many people and many organizations. We can and will get through this by being a community and sticking together.
As indicated above, some of our own events have been impacted. We are sorry to have announced the cancellation of these summer events that we coordinate and produce:
- Junior Ski to Sea Parade
- Junior Ski to Sea Race
- Haggen 4th of July
- Chamber Golf Classic
We want to thank the many sponsors that stepped up to help fund these events this year and through the past. As we make our way through this pandemic and into recovery, we look forward to scheduling large events again next summer.
For those of you event coordinators, nonprofit executives, and venue/facility owners and coordinators, we are convening a series of conversations as we plan for the future. Please shoot me an email if you are interested in being included.
On behalf of our organization and community, thank you so much for all the sacrifices everyone is contributing during this pandemic. It is hard, scary, and exhausting. We will get through this as a community … we are doing this for our community. For each other. Thank you for that.
Sincerely.
Guy Occhiogrosso
President/CEO
Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce