The Quesnel Downtown Association and West Quesnel Downtown Business Association collaborated to host a Shore to Shore Dinner on the Fraser River Walking Bridge this past Saturday (June 15) and consider it a great success.
Tickets to the dinner sold out quickly, and guests enjoyed a meal catered by Craig’s Table, drinks, table games and a beautiful atmosphere.
This was the first time a dinner had been hosted on the historic bridge, which was built in 1929, and the weather could not have been nicer for it. While it was scorching throughout the afternoon, it cooled off just enough to be pleasant by dinner time.
The idea for the social function came up when the West Quesnel Business Association were presenting in front of City Council for their by-law renewal.
“There are always suggestions that fly back and forth when you do these presentations because we talk about our five year plan and one of them was that we do something to do with the bridge,” said Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenburg, who was happy to see some of her organizational efforts come to fruition.
“Our president, Bob Michek said that’s a really good idea, so he touched base with the president of the QDA (Quesnel Downtown Association), Donna Jacobson, and formed a working committee who partnered with the city and evolved the plan that led to this.”
An eight person-committee with representatives from Downtown, West Quesnel and the City spent two months organizing the event, and, judging by the happy crowd, they did well.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Roodenburg. “You always have the behind-the-scenes things but when you look at the tables, they’re still full, people have not left and it’s hours into the event.”
It came as some surprise that anticipation for the first-time event was so high.
“The tickets sold in less than a week,” she said. “Six days and bam! Gone. It was amazing.
“We probably could have sold another hundred tickets easily,” Roodenberg added. “But this way there’s room to move.”
Of note was the work of the servers, who helped facilitate the abnormally long dining room.
“They’ve bent over backwards to make sure things have been flowing smoothly and this is the first time they’ve ever done something like this. They’ve stepped up admirably and done a great job.”
Now that people know a giant dinner party can be thrown on the bridge, a repeat is sure to happen.
READ MORE:Fraser River footbridge facts
ronan.odoherty@quesnelobserver.com
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