The Yorkton Film Festival has presented its 2021 Volunteer Award.
“This honour recognizes an individual or group who have made the Yorkton Film Festival stronger, who inspires us with their excellence and passion to reach our potential,” explained YFF Executive Director Randy Goulden, adding “today we honor and recognize the Bailey Family with the Volunteer Award.”
Goulden said the family has long supported the Festival.
“The support by the Bailey family goes back to the 1960s, when due to declining support, it looked like the festival might have to disband. But Allan Bailey, who was Mayor of Yorkton at the time, would not see the festival die,” said Goulden.
Bailey, along with his late wife Colleen, can be credited with ‘saving’ the Yorkton Film Festival through the donation of countless hours of work, stated Goulden.
“Today we are proud to have Mr. Bailey bear the title of Festival Ambassador,” she added.
The support simply continued through the years.
“Once the short-term crisis of survival was overcome, the board, under Mr. Bailey’s leadership, implemented fundamental changes to the structure of the festival to ensure its continuation and future success,” said Goulden.
The main change was to make the move to a festival featuring all Canadian content.
Even after Allan’s term with the Board ended, he continued to provide support and guidance provided to the festival up to the present day, said Goulden.
A major contribution he made to the festival was taking an active role in developing and purchasing the acclaimed Golden Sheaf Awards.
“We have always been able to be assured that the awards would be delivered to us on time and ready to present to the winners of the Golden Sheaf competition thanks to the support of the Bailey family to cover the significant costs associated with shipping the statues from the foundry to Yorkton,” said Goulden.
And it is truly a family contribution, as the next generation of the family, Ray and Crystal, are now strong supporters of the festival.
“When the foundry that produced the GSA statues went out of business in 2019, Crystal worked hard to find another foundry that could fill the void. With perseverance, Crystal’s research turned up a foundry right here in Saskatchewan, the Julienne Atelier Foundry located in Pense,” said Goulden.
So the award was a deserved one, said Goulden
“In recognition of the support and caring of Allan and Colleen and Ray and Crystal Bailey we are very pleased to honour the Bailey Family with the Yorkton Film Festival 2021 Volunteer Award,” she stated.
