No more Kintore Festival?


Sad to see the item at the very end of the Kintore Community Council March minutes (click the COMMUNITY COUNCIL link at the top of the website) that there might not be a Kintore Summer Festival this year, due to lack of volunteers willing to help with the organisation.

The Kintore Summer Festival was started up by Mark Reynolds and a group of enthusiastic volunteers who wanted to organise something that would encourage a sense of community in Kintore. At that time the village in the early stages of what has been massive growth. There was little in the way of business development, so Kintore was very much in danger of becoming largely a dormitory town for Aberdeen.

The Kintore Summer Festival was to remind people that they lived in what could and should be a vibrant community and to show them what that community could achieve when it pulled together.

The trouble is, as with anything of this type, it is only as good as the enthusiasm and energy of the people who organise it.

These days everyone has a lot more call on their time. Most of us work longer hours. Others live a very full and busy life, taking kids to various organisations and sports, meeting friends, going to the gym... or whatever. (Others just find the attraction of the TV or the internet too appealing!)

The common denominator is that there seem to be less people willing to give of their time and effort to organise things.

I've been there myself, many times. You end up feeling like you are banging your head against the proverbial brick wall to organise things for other people. Getting support is like pulling teeth sometimes.

Then, when you have given of your blood, sweat and toil to organise something, all you seem to get are the moaning minnies and dismal Desmonds who seem to delight in decrying your efforts. Summoning up their best indignation (honed by former Northsound DJ Nicky Campbell on "Watchdog", or reading the "Know Your Rights" column in the paper) they deliver various put-downs and complaints.

Not the way to encourage people, is it?

I do like the signature of one of our regular posters on the Kintore Message Board. At the end of nu2kintore's many postings, he or she says "Appreciate more, moan less".

An excellent sentiment.... something for us all to ponder.

Perhaps in that new regime of appreciating, rather than moaning and helping, rather than discouraging, there might be people out there willing to give the Kintore Summer Festival a go in 2007?

More than 400 stores at the click of a mouse and only one web address to remember www.deliver2.co.uk.

Posted: Mon - March 12, 2007 at 02:26 PM          

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