Dear editor:
On behalf of the board of directors for the Arts and Culture Foundation Cochrane (ACFC) I am writing because of an unfortunate misunderstanding in regard to the $20,000 provincial grant the ACFC and the Town of Cochrane were presented with recently.
The town and ACFC are partners in presenting the Canada Day festivities on July 1.
We apply for the grant because we are a non-profit group. The funds go to hiring the bands (music) for the Canada Day Festival.
The timing of the presentation by Banff-Cochrane MLA Ron Casey was unfortunate, as many of the public was under the impression the funding was for Alberta Culture Days.
We did receive funding from the Alberta Culture Days “pot” to the tune of $4,000 for Cochrane’s Alberta Arts Days.
These funds were used to rent tents, traffic control signage, advertising and other miscellaneous costs incurred while planning our event.
We depend on the sponsorship of businesses in Cochrane’s historic downtown and the good will of these businesses to stage these days.
We try very hard not to over burden our local businesses with requests to sponsor, as we know they are inundated with requests to sponsor events and organizations in Cochrane.
On a happy note, one of our greatest joys was to see the youth artists’ faces when they sold a painting or performed during our youth day on Sunday.
Ruth Soroka, secretary
