Spotlight on… Duck Paterson

There are many volunteers who make the Festival of Lights happen. We focus on Duck Paterson.

1. How long have you been associated with Festival of Lights?

I’ve been involved since 1990.

2. What is your role?

Hard to say somewhat… I guess I’m in charge of scrounging. I’m also the Emcee (the best job in the world) and whatever they want. I also try and coordinate the bucket trucks and volunteers for set-up & take down.

3. What is your favourite part of the Festival?

I have many favourites… the whole thing is one… but probably the top is seeing the Town looked at with excitement.

How the community comes together with pride on what they can do… and then the final one… is watching the kids faces when the lights go on!!!!

It’s quite a show for a small group of volunteers to be able to put on!!!

4. Which decoration is your favourite?

My favourite is the gift on the roundabout… it’s such a WOW when you come into town. Also, the Canadian flag stringer by the Bakery.

5. Favourite bulb colour?

All of them… not a big fan, yet, of the LED bulbs… but they are getting better!

6. What main challenges face Festival this year and beyond?

There are a couple… we need people to get involved. We’re very lucky when we have our work parties we get lots… but we also need people who want to see it continue… we need more “operations” involvement to plan.  It’s not getting any smaller but quite a few of us are getting older!

The second item is dollars… insurance is a big expense as well, now, the new LED bulbs are quite a bit more costly… again, it will take people to help raise these dollars

Thank you, Duck.