Some one-time projects cry out to be done two times - maybe more.
For Yalda Safaei, organizing a concert and family fun event in Fort George Park out of obligation last year was so rewarding, she is doing it again just to see it continue and grow. She expects she will also grow as a person from the experience.
Safaei was one of the youth involved last year in the Get Outside BC program, a youth leadership program in Squamish with an emphasis on the outdoors, environmental stewardship and parks. It is operated by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. One of their assignments is for each camper to take on an outreach project back in their home communities. With the help of local Get Outside BC intern Fei Ge, she set up and carried out the Sound of Summer Outdoor Concert.
Both are now in the final stages of holding the event for a second time, even though neither are connected this year to the Get Outside BC program in any official ways.
"We had about 100 people there last year, the volunteers, the musicians, and it was a fun experience so we decided to do it again," Safaei said. "We are not part of the camp this year, but we are still considering it a GOBC project, so their logos are still on it, even though we aren't obligated to do it again this year, and it wasn't part of the camp's plans. We aren't affiliated, but we support them and appreciate them and we hope they do the same for us."
If the event is equally successful this year, Safaei and Ge and fellow volunteer Kate Preston hope to hand it off to younger organizers to perpetuate the one-day concert. Ge is off in September to the University of Victoria while Safaei is going into Grade 12 at Duchess Park Secondary School.
This year the on-stage lineup includes Impulse Control, Benedict Beatty, Paige and the Gasoline Experience, Jenn Neiser, and more are in talks. Other family-friendly activities like a photo booth and face painting will also be there.
"We've got quite the variety," Safaei said. "One aspect we are adding this year is to have a concession and a donations box. Any of the profits we make, half will go to hold the event in the future. Also, half we will be giving to El Sistema, Jose Delgado-Guevara's program at Quinson Elementary School. He started it and I volunteered with that program. I am one of Jose's students at the Prince George Conservatory of Music."
Delgado-Guevara is the concertmaster for the Prince George Symphony Orchestra as well as violin instructor at the conservatory and leader of the local El Sistema program imported from Venezuela. It acquires violins and teachers to bring music lessons free of charge to children in financial need.
"It's so rewarding to see the kids learning violin like that when you know they couldn't have that opportunity without this program," Safaei said, spreading even more volunteer benefits from the concert event she helped found and continue.
The event happens Aug. 16 starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Kiwanis Bowl bandshell. There is no charge to attend.
