Thank You for 2023!

A heartfelt thank you to our Sensational Elora volunteers, sponsors and participants!
Sensational Elora organizes events throughout the year featuring, music, art, film, food
and culture. The proceeds of these events help to promote awareness for the fight
against food insecurity in Centre Wellington. Your unwavering support fuels our mission
and we couldn’t be more grateful.

In 2023, you helped us achieve a record-breaking year. Together, we raised over
$14,000 for the Centre Wellington Food Bank and the Centre Wellington District High
School’s food program (and $171K since our inception in 2008). Your contributions,
whether through time, resources, or sponsorship, have made an incredible impact.
Thank you all for your generous contributions. Together, we’re making a difference.
Here’s to another year of impact and success! 

What’s New at Sensational Elora?

We have a new, refreshed website that highlights our amazing events and why we do
what we do. Visit the new site Here.

Strategic Planning

We successfully applied for and secured funding from the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund to invest in the creation of a five-year Strategic Plan to ensure that the organization’s valuable work continues. The plan includes work to promote awareness of the organization, strengthen and expand partnerships, establish event evaluation and assessments, formalize organizational governance and to identify new fundraising opportunities. We’re actively working through the identified segments of the plan. Read the full press release about the funding Here.

Reorganization at Sensational Elora

To ensure the organization’s effectiveness, we’ve adopted a Co-Chair leadership dmodel. The Co-Chairs for the coming year will be Kirk McElwain and Heather Miranda.

Most of you know Kirk and his long association with Sensational Elora and the community. Heather has been on the Board of Directors for the last year and brings experience serving on two other boards in the GTA. We’ve also created a Marketing Committee that will have ownership for coordinating our activities.

CW Chamber of Commerce

To further our outreach into Centre Wellington, Sensational Elora has joined the CW Chamber of Commerce. This will give us access to many benefits and enable us to promote Sensational Elora to other member businesses for awareness and potential sponsorship opportunities.

A Look at 2023

Sensational Elora had a busy 2023 with many successful events.

The Fabulous Fergus Pub Night in June was a fun evening with the largest crowd ever of 114. The Brew House on the Grand, The Goofie Newfie and The Breadalbane Inn did a wonderful job of hosting the participants and the groups were led from destination to destination by a piper, a trombonist, and an historian.

Two Sensational Jazz events were held in 2023. On May 20th the Elora Big Band with D’eve Archer on vocals were featured at the Legion. September 30th brought some former members of Blood Sweat & Tears to town for a reunion concert at the Legion. A full house enjoyed the amazing music with featured lead singer Dane Hartsell and opening artist Tony McManus. We were also treated to D’eve Archer joining for a few numbers.

Empty Bowls Project
Some very kind and talented potters donate soup bowls to Sensational Elora annually to sell for the Soup Off event. In 2023, we made the bowls available for pop up sales at the Farmers Market and the Geddes Flea market in addition to selling the bowls at the Soup Off. It was a great way to spread the word on the work we do to help combat food insecurity in Centre Wellington and to help find homes for these great custom bowls.

Monster Month
It was another spooky October with many Sensational Elora events to celebrate Monster Month! Tim Murton’s Twilight Zoo, maintained and installed by Sensational Elora, adorned many buildings in downtown Elora throughout the month of October.
The monsters continue to be a big draw for visitors to Elora.

Pumpkin Day
The annual Pumpkin Day at Bissell Park was a fun day of activities brought to you by Sensational Elora. A professional pumpkin carver demonstrated his craft as attendees carved their own pumpkins. A reptile zoo, a slack line, face painting and complementary ice cream provided lots of fun things to do. Attendees were entertained by the Blue Bonnet Highland Dancers, Indigenous Dancers from Tribal Vision and a drum session led by Drums et al.

Sensational Soup Off
The Sensational Soup Off at The Wellington County Museum was a huge success with record attendees sampling an array of delicious soups. Thank you to the volunteer soup makers who donated their time and skills to make this a great event. We had a wonderful selection of Empty Bowls on hand thanks to the generosity of local potters. A big thank you also to the Rotary for their support at this event. We were treated to live entertainment throughout the day.

Monster March was a big hit with hundreds of participants with inventive costumes. After a lively march down the main street in Elora, the parade made it’s way to Bissell Park for hot chocolate and other treats.

2024

We look forward to a magnificent 2024! We’re kicking off the season with our annual Fabulous Fergus Pub Night on Wednesday, June 19th . Tickets are available now on our site here.

We’ll stay in touch to keep you informed on our amazing Sensational Elora events. Or, check our website for more information and updates Here