Bank Theatre, Rotary Club partner for Spirit Walks

TWEPI awards ‘Spark’ grants to local organizations

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — The trails of Point Pelee National Park hold a lot of stories and secrets, and those trails will soon become a stage for local actors to tell those stories.

The Bank Theatre has partnered with the Leamington Rotary Club and Parks Canada to present Spirit Walks inside the park as early as this spring.

The idea was first discussed at a Rotary Club meeting this past fall, as the club was looking for alternative ways to raise funds with COVID-19 restrictions still in place.

They reached out to newly elected Bank Theatre President, Corey Robertson, who then took advantage of the Sparks Grant and Mentorship program offered by Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI).

The grants were offered in October, so the timing was just right.

“Both the Bank Theatre and Rotary Club happen to have people who are great at applying for grants,” said Robertson. “I think we hit it out of the park.”

Last week, it was announced that The Bank Theatre’s submission, along with those of Billy Alexander from Caldwell First Nation (see story below), and Leslie Meloche from Walnut Grove B&B, were the three grant recipients.

They will each receive $3,000 and a tourism mentorship to take their tourism ideas to a different level.

For Rotary’s Char Houle, the Bank Theatre was a perfect fit for their idea.

“We immediately thought that if anyone could pull this off, it would be them,” she said. “We’re excited about what’s to come.”

Char Houle, left, of the Leamington Rotary Club, and Corey Robertson, President of The Bank Theatre, met at the trail leading to the Point Pelee Cemetery on Sunday to discuss their upcoming joint tourism venture, doing Spirit Walks at Point Pelee National Park.

Houle and Robertson met on Saturday at the Point Pelee Cemetery trail to get a feeling for the atmosphere and toss around a few ideas.

The Rotary Club will handle the logistics, the ticket sales and will be in charge of guiding these tours through the trails. The theatre troupe will be tasked with researching, outfitting and acting out stories from Point Pelee’s past.

“We’ve been fortunate to have Meghan Ruston from Point Pelee National Park involved in the planning stages and she will provide some great history for us to draw on,” said Robertson.

With lots of ideas still in the works, Houle is glad they have some time, but says they are aiming to have things ready for a spring launch.

“We hope to be up and running in the spring,” she said.

For Robertson, it’s a question of getting the stories and assigning different stories to different actors.

“We’ll have actors ready for certain roles and tell the stories depending upon the actors’ availability,” he said. “That way, people will be able to experience a different story each time they come.”

As rehearsals progress and ticket sales get rolling, each of these two community organizations will have more information available.

Keep checking banktheatre.com or portal.clubrunner.ca/643 for more details as they arise.

The ‘Spark’ Mentorships and Grants Program is a partnership between the Ontario Tourism Innovation Lab, Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation,TWEPI, Libro Credit Union and WEtech Alliance.

“With the advent of the pandemic, the tourism industry has changed drastically over the past year,” said TWEPI CEO Gordon Orr. “Investing in this program in Windsor Essex, two years after its provincial launch here was an easy decision, and the quality of applications and ultimately our 3 winners shows us just how fertile our region is for driving growth in innovation.”