Sleighing Hunger benefit concert cancelled over COVID-19 concerns
Event was to be held Thursday in support of Windsor-Essex food banks
Windsor's annual Sleighing Hunger benefit concert has been cancelled for 2021, but organizers hope donations will keep coming through regardless.
The concert — which would have featured the S'Aints and raised funds for local food banks — was to take place Thursday at Caesars Windsor, but the venue cancelled the show, as well as other December events, due to new COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's a mixed bag of emotions," S'Aints drummer Jeff Burrows told CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive on Monday. "I do understand what needs to be done, and I do understand what each and every one of us should be doing in order to prevent further spread, further shutdowns, further lockdowns, further deaths."
"It's unfortunate, but I get it."
This isn't the first year Sleighing Hunger has been affected by COVID-19; the virus meant last year's event had to take place virtually.
Burrows said St. Clair College, which he called "essentially the executive producer" of the Sleighing Hunger show, the college's alumni association, and (Labourers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 625, were also involved in the fundraising end of Sleighing Hunger.
"They've been combining their efforts to pay for this, pay for that, and to get the whole fundraising aspect of it started, even before we hit the stage," he said.
The collaboration has meant Sleighing Hunger has already donated $10,000 to Outreach for Hunger in Chatham, and $15,000 to the Windsor-Essex County Food Bank Association.
In addition, the S'Aints are donating proceeds from CD sales to area food banks, Burrows said. And while tickets purchases are being refunded, Burrows said he hoped people who had purchased tickets will consider donating those refunds directly to Sleighing Hunger.
"When you're chugging along, making $75,000 a year, hoping to better it this year, it's pretty frustrating to just be stalled almost immediately," Burrows said. "But that's the way it is lately."
Albums can be purchased and donations made via the Sleighing Hunger website.