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July 19, 2017
Hello, Zucchini People!
It is now just one month until the big, green day of fun!
We are just as please as a zucchini in the dirt about how many community partners have come aboard and joined 'Team Zucchini'. Huronia Museum, Midland Public Library, Fierté Simcoe Pride, Wye Marsh, Midland Community Gardens, RCL. Br. 80 Midland Pipes and Drums and Boys and Girls Clubs of North Simcoe are all turning up at Zucchini Mania to offer zucchini themed foods, crafts and entertainment. This is, of course, in addition to the many sponsors who have kicked in some much appreciated dollars to help make our festival a reality. Ontario 150, Enbridge, Maurice's valu mart, Mink Insurance, Eamonn O'Connell, The Midland Mirror, Westway Tents, Brooklea Golf and Country Club, Atherton Financial Group, Tom Smith Chevrolet Buick, Desjardins, Georgian Bakery, Dino's Fresh Food Deli and the Explorers Cafe - phewf! That's a long list! - have all helped us out so much, and we are just so grateful.
We are making daily announcements about festival news on our Facebook and Twitter accounts, so please follow to keep up to date on the latest zucchini fest info! Find our Facebook event page here: https://goo.gl/dbhDmW and our Twitter handle is simple @Askennonia.
The countdown is on! See you soon, zucchinimaniacs!
May 15, 2017
Howdy, fellow Zucchinimaniacs!
Isn't it amazing how quickly zucchini seeds turn into zucchini seedlings? We planted 80 seedling cells 2 weeks ago with the Circle of Friends seniors group, and already they're long, leggy zucchini babies, ready for bigger pots!
So too groweth our zucchini festival! We've been updating the Zucchini Mania 2017 page with news about our festival entertainment. There's more to come too, so check back frequently for updates as we add more entertainers and market features to our event day lineup!
It's almost the long weekend, a time when we Canadians traditionally head out to the garden to do some planting. If you want to grow a giant zucchini, start now! Contest applications are now available for download on our Enter Our Contests page.
For local folks, keep your eyes on our downtown valu-mart's storefront this week. We have a large window painting advertising Zucchini Mania appearing on Wednesday, featuring none other than our zucchini superstar, Queenie Zucchini! Thank you very much to valu-mart for allowing us to advertise using such a large portion of their storefront.
Until next time, zucchini on, Zucchinimaniacs!
March 23, 2017
Hello, Zucchinimaniacs!
Happy to share that plans for Zucchini Mania 2017 are well under way, with entertainment announcements and a schedule of the day's events to be posted soon. In the meantime, we've been steadily accepting applications to our vendor market, which is 1/3 of the way full already! If you make or sell anything suitable for sale at festival events and would like space in our market, booths are just $30/10'x10' space.
Zucchini Mania 2017 now has a Facebook Event Page! Click on the Facebook icon at the bottom of this page and you'll be magically transported there! Please like and share with your friends.
Until next time, zucchini on, Zucchinimaniacs!
February 21, 2017
Below is the copy from our Feb 21 press release, announcing Zucchini Mania's grant from the Ontario 150 Community Celebration Program! Hooray!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2017
Askennonia awarded Ontario 150 grant for zucchini mania
Annual zucchini festival will receive over $21,000 in additional funds for 2017 event
Midland, ON, February 21, 2017–Midland’s Annual Zucchini Festival is getting bigger and greener this year with additional funds from the provincial government. The 2nd Annual Zucchini Mania, scheduled to take place Sat Aug 19 in Midland’s Little Lake Park, has been awarded over $21,000 from the Ontario 150 Community Celebration Program. Hosted by Askennonia Senior Centre, Zucchini Mania is a community celebration of local food and garden culture.
" We are thrilled by the news of receiving this grant for Zucchini Mania! These additional funds mean we can improve the event’s accessibility and signage, offer even more zucchini food samplings and have a larger budget for entertainment and marketing.”
– Judy Contin, Executive Director, Askennonia Senior Centre
At the heart of Zucchini Mania are zucchini food tastings and zucchini growing and baking contests, open to the public. New this year is a Chili Contest, which will give local cooks the opportunity to craft their very best chili from fresh produce and compete for the title of King or Queen of Chili. Zucchini Mania will also include live music and entertainment reflective of our region’s cultural diversity, Canada 150 displays, a Canada 150 themed Speaker’s Corner, activities for kids, a festival market and a large BBQ by event sponsors Maurice’s valu-mart and Enbridge Gas. Event partners, The Huronia Museum and The Karma Project, will be on hand to offer zucchini tastings, crafts and games.
Festival vendor applications and regular event updates can be found at www.zucchinimania.com.
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January 26, 2017
Great news for our festival vendor friends! Applications to the Zucchini Mania festival market are now available for download; please find the link to the application under the Vendor tab at the top of the page.
We look forward to working with our fantastic vendors again this year! As it was in 2016, our festival market will be set up in among the mature, shady trees of
Little Lake Park. Prices for booth space have remained unchanged; all proceeds from our booth sales support programs for local seniors at Askennonia! Thank you, and we look forward to spending the zucchiniest day of the year with you!
January 3, 2017
Wowee zowee! It's a new year and with it there are new plans in the works for Zucchini Mania 2017.
Zucchini Mania 2017 will feature special content to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary! We'll be sure to share all of the exciting tidbits of news and plans with you in the upcoming weeks and months.
Our inaugural zucchini festival in 2016 raised $6000 for our Senior Centre - incredible! Many thanks to our sponsors, vendors, volunteers, entertainers and participants who made our first year event such a success.
Zucchinily yours,
Barb
August 26, 2016
Tomorrow is the big day! We've had a crazy week of running around, taking care of last minute details, giving media interviews and holding volunteer meetings.
We thank all of you amazing people who have worked so hard with us to bring Zucchini Mania to life! To our wonderful volunteers, have FUN tomorrow and zucchini on!
xoxox
Barb
August 19, 2016
The big day is just a week away! People are getting excited about 'zucchini day', which is really heartening to see. We live in a great community, and I am very grateful to everyone who has helped spread the word about our event.
A quick note about our contests: the Most Unusually Shaped Zucchini and Best Zucchini Preserve contests have been cancelled due to lack of interest. We are still going ahead with our Biggest Zucchini and Best Zucchini Baked Good contests; location and times have been posted on the 'Enter Our Contests' page on this website.
Volunteers, we're having a meeting here at Askennonia on Mon Aug 22 at 2 pm to go over our event plans! You'll receive your volunteer assignment, be updated on event safety plans and receive a hat to wear on event day. Hope you all can make it!
8 more sleeps! Hooray!
Zucchinily yours,
Barb
July 18, 2016
Hello everyone, and welcome to our new
website!
We want to thank everyone who has expressed an interest in becoming involved with Zucchini Mania. This is shaping up to be a really fun event!
It takes a lot of group effort to put on a good event. If you'd like to volunteer to be a part of the Zucchini Mania team, please get in touch with me at barbr.askennonia@gmail.com. I promise, it'll be a super-dee-duper fun day!
Cheers,
Barb