Dear Friends of Sno-Fest,

 Well, our 28th year event has happened - without our sled dog races, much

 to our regret. You can have no way of knowing probably, the time and effort

 that went into making that decision. We checked and re-checked and

 re-checked the trails over and over again, and poured over weather

 forecast - but, finally, we had to say that we must cancel our races. The risk to

 dogs and mushers was too great, and that had to be the bottom line. We

 contacted mushers far and wide and did our best not to miss anyone. One

 musher from Quebec helped me though. When I told him of our decision, he

 said he appreciated our calling it off instead of going ahead under bad

 circumstances - that our race is in the middle of the season, and if we

 had gone ahead, and dogs or mushers had been hurt, that it would make the

 whole year bad. So, we will be back next year and hope the whole group will be

 too. In our 28 years, this is only the second time we have had to do this,

 so the odds are in our favour.

 But, we went ahead with other activities, and to all those of you who came

 out as participants and visitors to the Lumber Jack show, the Weight Pull

 event, the Arts and Crafts show, the Environmental Organizations, the Bus

 Tours, the banquet the pancake breakfast, the church luncheon, the deluxe

 breakfast and the Remax balloon ride, we say a hearty THANK YOU for your

 support. The same THANK YOU goes to our many sponsors and donors, without

 whose help the event could not take place. And, finally, THANK YOU to

 Community Futures for their generous backing as a granting organization.

 Then, within Sno-Fest itself, I need to give important recognition and

 THANKS to the many volunteers, (in the neighbourhood of 200 people),

 including our wonderful Sno-Fest Committee, , who give so generously of

 their time and effort, many of them behind the scenes, both at the time of

 the event and throughout the year.

 So, with a team like that, we have much to be proud of, and I have every

 reason to believe that we will go forward to a successful Sno-Fest event

 number 29!

 We will keep you posted on further developments, and SEE YOU AT NUMBER 29.

 THINK SNOW, THINK FUN, THINK SNO-FEST!

 Richard Lowery,

 Chairperson,

 Sno-Fest Committee