Galt Gardens had much to offer on Canada Day

By Lethbridge Herald on July 4, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Reid&Writes play what they consider to be "Folk from the soul" music for the crowd at the Galt Garden Canada Day festivities on Saturday. Their music is considered to be anything from heart-felt to dynamic.

Justin Seward
LETHBRIDGE HERALD

The colour red was out in full force at Galt Gardens as Lethbridge celebrated Canada Day festivities on Saturday.

Various singers and dancers provided entertainment, people could enjoy a charity breakfast hosted by the Interfaith Food Bank, a car show was staged by the Le Barons Car Club and an outdoor market was hosted in the park as well.

The charity breakfast is an annual event the Interfaith Food Bank puts on during Canada Day.

“The charity breakfast is our big thing that the food bank volunteers are engaged with,” said Danielle McIntyre, Interfaith Food Bank executive director.

“It’s all by donation. They’re getting breakfast sandwiches, as well as whole fruit, juice and coffee. It’s pay what you can. If you can’t pay, you can still eat no problem and all the funds raised are going to go back into our programs and services. We’re also running the community stage. So we got a whole bunch of community groups that are going to be performing today. We’ve partnered with Domesticated Divas to run the outdoor market and so there’s tons of vendors that are doing their own thing.”

McIntyre said as events kicked off for the the day that breakfast is the most important meal.

“We had a great opening where we did a land acknowledgement. We sang ‘Oh Canada’, and it was time to eat, and I’m glad to see that people (have) eaten and are hanging around and participating with all the other activities, it’s fantastic. 

“And then for us, this a wonderful thing for us to be engaged with, just to be out in the community and have people recognize that the food bank is still here, and we still need the community’s help to make sure that we’re here for everybody in the community that needs us.”

Volunteers made enough breakfast for 1,000 people.

There was no set goal on what needed to be raised.

All the proceeds from the entry fee at the Le Barons Car Club car show went directly back to the food bank.

“If you look at these cars out here, the average guys out here, they probably with building one of these cars, they spent thousands and thousands of dollars,” said Juran Greene, car show chair.

“So they are fortunate that they can be able to do this.  So when you start looking at the fortunate ones that can actually donate $10 or $20 or $100 to someone to help them eat and that’s the way we look at it and we do the same for Christmas. We do a food hamper and we go to a needy family and that’s what we try to do is for the people that are down on their luck (and) unfortunate that they might not have things. We want to be able to say, let us help – even it’s a little bit.”

The numbers in the car show were down from previous years with about 50 showing up Saturday compared to the usual 90 or so.