NIPIGON – Last week, the Municipality of Nipigon stood up and proclaimed that Nov. 17 will be Nipigon Day.
The idea was brought to Council by a former resident Joanne Brown, whose daughter-in-law Emily Poschner thought it would be fun to declare Nov. 17 as Nipigon Day because they are located at the junction of Highway 11/17.
“What we did was we just kind of made it into a local Pride Day, like being proud of being from Nipigon, living in Nipigon, being part of the community, encouraging folks to wear their Nipigon gear, the hats, the T-shirts and then encouraging businesses and organizations to recognize it,” said Mayor Suzanne Kukko.
Kukko said that a local restaurant, Ducky’s Dinner made a special burger which incorporated blueberries, a staple of Nipigon pride in the seasonal blueberries picking festival, to honour the day.
“I, myself, went out to dinner that night to support local and there were a few people there that were showing me their T-shirts,” Kukko stated.
This year’s soft launch of Nipigon Day shows that the economic development committee can pull off an event on short notice. With a little more planning, the municipality can promote and celebrate the day on a larger scale.
However, Kukko points out that the difficulties of holding an event on a day that changes through the week can be a challenge for the planning committee.
“I can see this continuing as an annual event. The difficult part is it's a different day of the week every year. So, it's not like you can plan like the fall fishing festivals or Labor Day weekend which is always on a weekend. It's going to be on a Tuesday. It might be on a Thursday. It might be on a Saturday. I think for just from year to year looking at what day of the week is going on. Staff and the committee, and the EDC committee can come up with some cool stuff and maybe businesses have some ideas,” said Kukko.
“But I think I could see it as just a support local and Nipigon pride and then sort of if it's on a Junior B game night then we work with the Junior B folks to do a special promotion there. I think there's a lot of potential to have it to have it every year,” Kukko added.
With files from Al Cresswell, CFNO Radio