Sheep sponsor needed to bring back the sonnets, haikus and baa-llads
The good folks at Holiday Alley have the sheep all ready for their second annual Sheep Poetry event in Selkirk, but they now need an Honorary Shepherd Sponsor to help fund the event.
Last year’s Sheep Poetry attracted 80 people who wrote poems based on the words found on the bibs of the eight sheep in downtown Selkirk.
It was a big hit with CBC Radio even running news stories on the poetry event across Canada helping to further raise the profile of Selkirk as a creative, clever and fun community.
“We’d like to bring this all-ages event back, but we need a sponsor – who isn’t sheepish – to be our Honorary Shepherd Funder – and help cover some of the costs of the event,” said Holiday Alley Organizer Andraea Sartison.
Manitobans flocked to downtown Selkirk last year to see the sheep who were on site to inspire citizens to write poetry. As the sheep roamed around their pen, they made different combinations of words and citizens used them as inspiration to make poetry. The poetry was then strung around the sheep’s pen and all 80 poems were posted on the Holiday Alley website.
Last year the sheep inspired with the words bliss, cheer, drift, frost, shine, spirit, star, and warm.
One poem that was written from the event went as follows:
As we toured Selkirk thinking the season was blah
Knowing it needed just a little more “baaa”
We turned the corner, and it changed the tide
We saw some sheep with names on their side.”
Holiday Alley is largely run by volunteers and 90 per cent of the events are free, thanks to sponsors and grants they apply for explained Sartison.
“Lots of the activities have a champion sponsor – like Red River College Selkirk campus who is coming on board for the first time this year sponsoring the Soup Cook Off and a crafternoon on its campus. This year we still have one event that needs a champion and that’s our sheep,” she said. “This event was so much fun for everyone we really want to bring it back.”
Anyone interested in adopting Sheep Poetry as their family or business good deed can contact the Holiday Alley team at holidayalleymb@gmail.com.
You can see the Sheep Poetry video and gallery of poems from last year’s event at https://holidayalley.ca/index.php/activities/sheep-poetry/
