2018 Highland Games Cancelled
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Saint Andrew's Society of Modesto |
February 23, 2018 |
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Dear Friends and Associates, It is with sad and heavy hearts that the Saint Andrew's Society of Modesto has to cancel the 2018 Modesto Scottish Highland Games and Celtic Festival. As you all know we had to cancel last year's (2017) games due to the flooding of the Tuolumne River Regional Park area where we traditionally hold our games. The park was under ten feet of water and the damage to the park was horrific. We lost about 30 big trees; significant damage to the rest rooms; several piles of debris 30 feet tall, etc. etc. All this had to be cleaned up and carted away, taking many, many months to clear and clean up. The reason the Board of Directors and the Games Committee have cancelled the games this year is, #1 not having games money come in for 2017 it has left us short of funds to put this years games on. #2 The Park has a very high population of homeless plus unsavory people utilizing the park, which we deem unsafe for our visitors. #3 The Park is not in the best area of Modesto and keeps some potential guests from coming to the games. #4 There have been break-ins to cars as well even though we have more than adequate security. #5 Our Society has many older citizens in our membership and some of which cannot help in setting up the games or tearing down the games. #6 There is just not enough help in the membership to put the games on. St. Andrew's has been looking at other venues to hold our 2019 Games. We are currently looking at the Turlock Fairgrounds to hold this event. There are a lot of advantages to this and #1 being that there is room for growth. We will be able to have RV's overnight; The Fairgrounds will do the majority of the work setting up and tearing down. They have security, plus we will have our own; there is electricity there, so we will not have to pay for generators; we will have some inside air-conditioned areas; there is lots of parking and entry gate areas will be easier to attend and man. We think this will be a safer environment for our guests and participants and should be able to have a much bigger audience for the games. Thank you for being so faithful to our games each year, and we hope to see you at our new venue in 2019. We will keep you apprised of our event. Thank you, Vicky Wolff, Scribe and Games Chairman | |