As we hit the one-year mark of COVID-19 across the province, the Eatonia Centennial Committee has made the tough decision, once again, to forego the event due to the many uncertainties surrounding the ongoing pandemic.

Many organizations are having to rethink their spring and summer events as COVID-19 continues to linger, however, this event was not annual occurrence, nor did it take only weeks or months to plan.

The event was, and is going to be, to celebrate Eatonia’s 100th birthday, which was originally set to take place last year on the August long weekend. Committee members candidly stated that it would have to be a centennial-plus-one celebration when they made the decision to cancel the event last year. Now, all are hopeful for a centennial-plus-two event for next year, providing covid restrictions are lifted.

In addition to the fact that this celebration only comes around once in a hundred years, the planning that took place was no small feat.

Kim Becker, committee member, said the initial planning took upwards of three years, some of which would have carried over if the celebration moved forward this year. However, with another 365 days gone by, it’s likely they will be starting from scratch on some aspects of the planning.

“There was a lot of planning that happened to be ready for the event that was supposed to happen last year, but now – some vendors we booked with aren’t around anymore cause covid took it’s toll on them and just other parts and bookings for the three day weekend will have to be revisited when we are actually ready to move forward with it.”

Becker added that although they may need to go back to the drawing board for some aspects of the event, they have the majority of the weekend planned out as far as events and gatherings – something she said, they didn’t want to compromise by having during the pandemic.

“We are really just holding out until we can welcome everyone to our community like we originally planned. This is a celebration of Eatonia and we don’t to shrink it, or make it smaller than we wanted – we are just going hold out until we can all come together and really have the celebration that we, and so many people, were looking forward to,” said Becker.

Those who were eager to join the festivities bought tickets pre-covid, of which, last year, those tickets were said to be honoured into 2021. Now, with the second postponement, Becker said they are looking to refund those pre-purchased tickets.

Whenever it is possible, Becker said they are still very much looking forward to bringing the three-day event to the west central community and hopes that people will flock to the town regardless of it being a centennial-plus-two celebration.