Charity begins At Home

 The  following  choice piece found its way to my attention this morning. .It appeared in a newsletter named OntarioVisted with a web site. address. We  probably all  need to be aware of what happens when we run afoul of  the Jazz Festival group.

Accede to their demands and we get the Town's Logo over some of their promotion material. Don't give
them what they demand and we get negative press in a newsletter published in Cobourg ,Ontario.

Take a gander .  

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 A number of weeks ago I read an article about a non-profit event in Aurora that  lost its free use of the town  park. Instead Town Council  decided to charge for the use of the park. $1300  If this were a profit group.I could see the rational. However this is a charitable group who donates their profits to local charities. In essence the town was taking away a charitable donation tof $1,300 .What were they thinking?

 Besides the charitable donation, the festival attracts thousands of people to the town bringing  dollars to the town's merchants! At a time hen tourism is so vital  to communities, why would a Town, any Town , penalize such an event  .It seems to me a town should be encouraging such  enterprise  not discouraging it.. Planning such an event is hard enough without politicians and their bureaucrats adding an  additional burdens.  Unfortunately Aurora is not the only town......etc. etc

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.With  my limited skills I attempted  unsuccessfully to copy he piece. I particularly wanted my colleagues to see what they get for ever being involved with the St Kitts Jazz festival in the first place.

In order for the group  to obtain a Trillium grant, Council was persuaded they had to show community support and  gave them a "platinum" sponsorship. worth $5,000. Staff had recommended half that. Susan Morton Leonard came back and said it wasn't enough . So we doubled the money..

Ye Gods In Heaven ,can we ever be protected from our own stupidity.

In 2010., they received a sponsorship, probably base metal,  without  Council  authority on some other pretext.

We  received an unaudited statement  last year that claimed to represent proceeds from the event. $150,000 We were informed  all of  $6,000 of that was presented to two charities  after all other participants were compensated.

 Mr. .McWilliams claimed he had read that  they were required to pay $1,300 for use of the town park in 2012 and this money could have  also been   charitable donation.

The writer is as inaccurate in some of his claims  as he is sparse on others.

One can only wonder  about the source of his information. Actually I do not wonder.. I just want my
colleagues to understand this  is their reward  for  their generosity with other people's money.

Naturally I want taxpayers also to understand what they got for previous generosity. besides the town's logo being displayed on some of the promotional materials.

I have  attempted to respond to Mr. MWilliams to discover if he had information we did not.  My e-mail was not delivered to the  address provided.