Opinion

Thanks for help at this year's BatFest

Posted October 31, 2007 11:00 pm

BatFest 2007 was a great success due to the collaboration of many organizations in town.

Batavia MainStreet presented the festival with our valued partners: Batavia Chamber of Commerce, Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry, Batavia Park District, Batavia Public Library, Batavia Mothers' Club, BATV and the City of Batavia, all without whom the festival would not be possible. We have a great planning committee and we thank individuals and their organizations for their time and resources.

Thank you also to the downtown merchants for hosting trick-or-treating, donating contest prizes and sharing your parking for the day. Our sponsors also play an important role in helping us to grow the festival this year. We were able to provide more at BatFest this year due to the following sponsors: Vampire: LaSalle Bank, Old Second Bank and Provena-Mercy Medical Center; Grey Bat Sponsor: SignTech and Brown Bat Sponsors: John Wazio, Jr. DDS and Image Awards and Engraving. Also thanks to Harris, N.A. for sponsoring the Dracula Blood Drive and to Shelter Insurance/Michael Hanrahan for being our Trick-or-Treat sponsor. Many Batavia area businesses had a booth in BatMart and our 'Boo'ths and we thank you also for joining the festival. Congratulations to all the winners of the scream contest, pie baking contest, RMS poster contest and costume contest and all the parents and care givers that took the time to get your ghosts and goblins costumed.

BatFest is a great example of a "festival with a heart," giving back to our community by including our non-profit groups at no charge. MainStreet is proud to present BatFest for the seventh year and to help build a "sense of place" for our downtown and citizens. The Food Pantry was able to help stock its shelves by the food and cash donations from the hay ride and other community groups were able to promote themselves and raise funds for programs and upcoming projects. The second annual NAMI BatRun raised funds and awareness for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the Dracula Blood Drive helped replenish our area blood supply through Heartland.

We encourage all non-profit groups and businesses to plan now to participate in BatFest 2008, to be held on Oct. 25.

Britta McKenna

Executive Director

Batavia MainStreet

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