Superb grant writing results in $20,000 Spirit Festival Grant for Revelstoke

By David F. Rooney

Superb grant writing by Arts Council Coordinator Garry Pendergast has resulted in Revelstoke receiving every penny of the BC Spirit Festival grant it applied for — a cool $20,000.

“We received everything we asked for,” Pendergast said Thursday. “When you consider that Vancouver and Burnaby each received $50,000 grants we did very well.”

He said the $20,000 will be used to stage a Spirit Festival in the city February 6-13 involving “a whole range of acts.”

The money will go towards events such as the Carousel of Nations (the first Carousel held last year was hugely successful), the staging of Ski Bum — The Musical by a travelling theatre group, ice sculptures produced by a professional sculptor, the Romanza concert, a film competition sponsored by the Friends of Mount Revelstoke & Glacier and more.

The province established the Spirit Festival grant program to honour the Olympics. It has distributed more than $1 million to 49 different communities.