Celebrate what’s ours

What a weekend!
It seems that’s a saying that comes to my mind every weekend I work as they always seem full with not much time to breathe, or respond to fire calls with Enfield Fire.
But this weekend saw me spend the vast majority of it under the bright sunny skies at Burncoat Head Park for the Howe High is Your Tide event as well as the Human 7 in support of the Bay of Fundy’s entry in the 7 Wonders of Nature contest.
The joyous look of the kids including more than one who were covered head to toe in muck, to the faces of Municipality of East Hants councillors Greg Grant and Wayne Greene as they rolled around in the mud, then bear hugged making each others white shirts even more dirtier was thrilling to see. It looked like even if the TV camera that Global TV reporter Devin Stevens was holding hadn’t been rolling, the two would still have been willing to get a little dirty for the cause!
Then it came time for the formation of the Human 7. As I looked down from the cliff above and helped line the more than 200 people forming the 7 up for photos (including the one on our front page), including those taken by other media who were there like Cat Country radio, FX 101.9 radio from Halifax, and like mentioned above, Global TV.
I was disappointed to see just four media outlets at this event.
Where were CBC, CTV, and the Herald? Unfortunately, if it was a story of controversy they would have likely been there knocking at the door.
But maybe this is where the promotion of the area comes in – or in my opinion, the lack there of. The group that organized the Human 7 and Howe High is Your Tide did a great job. They deserve a lot of credit. I’m not taking anything away from the job they did.
However, it seems the Bay of Fundy region doesn’t get a whole lot of promotion by any level of government, but specifically municipal and provincial, sort of like a racetrack that many people don’t know about but should.
While the NDP sent Hants East representative John MacDonell to the event, wouldn’t it have been more appropriate, being a tourism event that the tourism minister, Percy Paris, be in attendance? A communications for tourism had advised organizer Paris would be there, but he did not show up.
Recent numbers released by the Tourism division of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism indicate the Bay region is looking at an increase, while other areas across Nova Scotia.
At a Maitland bed and breakfast, the owner reported an 85 per cent occupancy rate in July, while this month (August) is looking even rosier. The percentages are expected to be a jump by 20 per cent from numbers achieved in 2010.
This shows that people are coming to this picturesque area? Why is it then, that I see more tourism promotion from the province of any other area of Nova Scotia except the Bay of Fundy?
With just a few months until the top 7 Wonders of Nature are officially announced in November, it’s time the province throw its support behind this. Promote the website www.votemyfundy.com and how people can text Fundy to 77077 to vote.
The end result would be both beneficial for the area and in turn the province.