View From the Legislature

Last weekend, Steinbach hosted its tenth Summer in the City festival, celebrating arts and culture in southeast Manitoba. Together with my wife and son, I enjoyed attending all three days of this great festival.

This annual summer festival has become one of the region’s best attractions. Again this year, downtown Steinbach was filled with activities such as face painting, food vendors, live music, the midway, and much more.

There were a number of great local entertainers on the main stage. These year’s headline entertainers represented a spectrum of musical tastes as we welcomed Terri Clark, Harlequin, and Honeymoon Suite. Christian group Manic Drive closed down the main stage with a high energy performance on Sunday night. My family and I especially enjoyed Matt Falk and his Sunday afternoon comedy show. This was in addition to the many other artists and performers who showed their talents on Main Street throughout the weekend.

I also especially enjoyed the Friday night recognition of new Canadian citizens on the cultural stage. It is always heartwarming to welcome new Canadians as they become part of our great country. Following that ceremony, it was again an honour to welcome my friend and former Manitoba MLA and Cabinet Minister Kevin Chief to Steinbach as he led the Norman Chief Memorial Dancers in another outstanding performance.

It was great to hear that the festival’s Board Chair, Jon Sawatzky, believes this past weekend was the best-attended festival to date, and I congratulate Jon and his team on a successful event. The sense of community that is created through festivals such as this is exemplified by the many people who donate their time to ensure that things run smoothly. Too often the hard work of all of the volunteers goes unnoticed and I’d like to personally thank each and every person that donated their time to help make Summer in the City the success that it has become. Additionally, this cannot be achieved without the support of the many sponsors.

The Sunday morning service at Worship in the City had guest speaker Mark Hughes from the Winnipeg-based Church of the Rock, with worship led by Danny Plett & Project Worship. Freewill offerings were taken throughout the event, with proceeds being donated to Southeast Helping Hands, Soup’s On and Steinbach Community Outreach. On a daily basis, these charities make a real difference to the lives of many members of the community so tremendous to hear Co-Chair of Worship in the City, Art Enns, announce that the Sunday morning service was attended by approximately 2,500 people and they collected $9,060 during the offering. This is a wonderful result that highlights the generosity of southeast Manitobans and I am certain that the charities listed above will be most appreciative of the funds that were raised.

Thank you and congratulations again to all those who were involved in this year’s incredibly successful Summer In The City and Worship In The City.