Sonic Potluck community radio week a success: organizer

Cables and cords, microphones and soundboards. These littered the front entrance of the L.A. Bown campus of College of the North Atlantic last week as the school and community partners put off what they called a Sonic Potluck radio celebration.

The week-long community radio celebration highlighted the very best of local talent - from storytellers to musicians.

A highlight of events that actually took place off of the radio was an agricultural breakfast held last Thursday morning at College of the North Atlantic.

The bacon and sausage was served courtesy of Loch Levin Slaughter House located in Bay St. George South and the eggs courtesy of Elaine and Glenn Wells of Wells Farm and John A. MacPherson Free Range Eggs, all of Bay St. George South.

Agricultural Day highlights included interviews with Nathan Dennis, a young farmer from Piccadilly, and Wade Alley of the Loch Leven Slaugherhouse.

Mr. Alley who owns and operates the family-run business was glad to have the opportunity to speak about his work.

"I've been a farmer all my life and have been running the slaughterhouse operation for the last six years," he said.

"I do well, but my business is word of mouth. I sell directly to the public, and my business is growing."

He says he feels the market and local support are there for him to consider going into secondary processing in the near future - producing his own smoked meats and the like.

A collaborative project of the College of the North Atlantic, Rural Secretariat, Long Range RED Board, Communities in Schools and Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism, the week was meant to inform the public about a variety of things.

Multiculturalism Day taught people who our neighbours are, environment day informed people about what we can do be responsible for our behaviours, and agricultural day let us know where our food comes from, where it once came from, and why we should care.

Co-organizer Fred Campbell called the week a success, noting it was a also a lot of fun.

"We've done approximately 50 of these special events and this was the first time it was ever divided into theme days," he said.

"It's been very interesting."

Mr. Campbell said his favourite part of events like this is when large groups come in and the room is bustling.

"That's what we try and do," he said.

"On multicultural day in the evening we had Mi'kmaq come in and there was a big circle with drums and stories. And it was fascinating and the whole place was alive. That's something that makes the style of communication that we're doing totally unique."

The week concluded with a lifelong learning day and then the Sonic Potluck 14 concert, put off by music students in the college's Recording Arts and Music Industry and Performance programs.

reporter@thegeorgian.ca