Riverdale Share to take year off.
A group of singers from the Broadview Community Youth Group perform during the 2010 Riverdale Share Concert at St. Banabas Church. The popular concert has been cancelled for 2011, but planning for the 2012 show continues.
Staff file photo/NICK PERRY
Riverdale Share, the annual Holiday concert which aims to raise good cheer - along with money for local neighbourhood charities - is taking a year off.
Instead, it will wait until December 2012 to hold its 20th anniversary community show.
The decision was made after one of the key organizers for the grassroots, volunteer initiative, Susan Baker, the volunteer executive director, has had to take time off for a family matter - helping to care for her father.
"Our dedication, commitment and boundless enthusiasm for this cause is unwavering, however as our dear friend, the late Jack Layton poignantly expressed, it is important to take time out when life challenges us in other ways," said Baker in a message to sponsors and supporters in the community.
The extra time, she assured, will be put to good use for next year's show.
"While this much loved annual event is sure to be missed this holiday season - we are thrilled to be able to contribute an extra year of planning and preparation to ensure that the 20th Anniversary (show) is marked in a significant and impactful way.
"This celebratory performance is not only a finale for our first two extraordinary decades, but will also launch us into the many decades to come."
This past summer the charity distributed more than $28,000 in a ceremony attended by local recipients, sponsors and supporters.
Over the past 19 years, the Riverdale Share community concert has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and truckloads of food for families in crisis in the Riverdale community.
The show has attracted an impressive list of stars, many of them local, who join fellow local artists on stage, such as former Barenaked Ladies' frontman Steve Page, the Tragically Hip's Gord Downey, Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, rock music's cult heroine Mary Margaret O'Hara, country legend Russell deCarle (Prairie Oyster), Great Big Sea's baritone Murray Foster, pop group Moxy Früvous, comedian Luba Goy, CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi, the Bebop Cowboys, Gregg Lawless and many more.
Visit www.riverdaleshare.com for more information.
- Norm Nelson