Skip to content

Cochrane Immigrant Services prepares to host Culture Days event this fall

“We’re all the same and we all want the same thing,” she said. “We all want a community to be a part of and to contribute and the more experience we have with each other, the more we realize that.”
Sandra Scott
Sandra Scott, the president of the Cochrane Immigrant Services Association, has been busy planning a replacement event for the usual Culture Days celebration.

COCHRANE Sandra Scott, the president of the Cochrane Immigrant Services Association, was posted up at the Garden Roots Market outside of the Alliance Church on Thursday (Aug. 6) to fundraise for the Association’s annual Culture Days event.

Each year the Association hosts an event that showcases and celebrates the diverse number of cultures that make up the social fabric of Cochrane, while serving as an opportunity to welcome newcomers to the community.

“Every year we usually run a Culture Fest, which is a big huge event, and we usually get to highlight 16 to 18 cultures that are represented here in Cochrane with dance and food,” she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the group to cancel the usual celebration, but the association has been busy planning a more COVID-friendly event to take its place.

“Unfortunately, we can’t do that this year, so we’ve come up with an exciting thing. We are going to host a scavenger hunt, of sorts.”

The scavenger hunt is called the Amazing Cochrane Culture Hunt, and is set to run on Sept. 27. Scott said that there will be eight to ten booths, each representing a unique culture, set up around town. The starting point will be at the Spray Lake Sawmill Family Sports Centre, where the participants will get a clue that will lead them to the first booth.

At each booth, participants will find another clue that will lead them to their next destination. Once all of the booths have been visited, those taking part will head back to the start and will be entered into a draw to win a prize.

The structure of the event will allow the volunteers to control the flow of traffic so that participants can maintain social distance and public health guidelines, said Scott. They are capping participants at 48 cars.

Cochrane, said Scott, is a very diverse small town. She believes that these kinds of events are important to show locals how significant these different cultural groups are, and how much they can affect the cultural framework of the town.

“For a small town in Alberta, it’s quite diverse. We have people from India, multiple Latin countries, Jamaica, Bulgaria, Britain, the Irish, a very large Pilipino group. These groups are very significant to our really diverse and colourful culture, and our culture of caring and they really contribute a lot to our communities and we want to celebrate that.”

Scott said that she believes it’s important to host these types of events and to experience the things about each of us that make us unique, and also the same.

“We’re all the same and we all want the same thing,” she said. “We all want a community to be a part of and to contribute and the more experience we have with each other, the more we realize that.”

Now more than ever, it’s important for us all to come together and celebrate, she said.

“It's our connection that keeps us together and will help us through these difficult times”

For updates regarding the event, or to get involved as a volunteer visit CochraneImmigrantServices.ca, or the Cochrane Immigrant Services Association’s Facebook page at Newcomers Cochrane.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks