Rotary of Oban Lend Support To Winter Festival Club
Rotary Club of Oban President Douglas Small has the chilli job of handing over a cheque for £300 in support of Oban’s Winter Festival to “Coolio “ our Festival Mascot.
Coolio is also known as David Smith of the Organising Committee .
Douglas commented “The Winter Festival is continuing to grow year on year and is a fantastic addition to the Towns calendar of events. Rotary are delighted to support the event with funds but are also pleased to offer our Club Members as Stewards for the various events held over the Festival. This year we will be assisting with stewarding at the Enchanted Woods at Glencruitten which is fantastic”.
Members of Oban Rotary were 
once again heavily involved in the organisation and supervision of Bid4Oban's Winter Festival, in particular The Reindeer Parade, the newly introduced "Winter Walk in the Woods" and, of course, the concluding event which involves the OHS Pipe Band marching to the distillery. Once again large crowds supported the events which was favoured with very pleasant weather. It is generally agreed that "The Winter Festival" is now an established and significant event in the town's calendar.Our first picture shows the reindeers waiting for Santa and his sleigh and the second, Secretary David Finlayson as part of the supervision team on the final night.
Once again members of Oban Rotary participated in the management of "The Reindeer Parade and "The Hats Parade" which form part of Oban's Winter Festival, the former takes place at the beginning of the festival and the latter towards the end.
Rotarians L to R - David Finlayson, Peter Tosh, Ken Oxland, Ken Moncrieff, Iain Mac Intyre, David Mudie
The winter festival, sponsored by Bids4Oban, is now a established event in the town and takes place annually in November. The support of Rotary is integral to the success of the two parades because large crowds witness the events - many of whom are children - and adequate supervision is vital. This is provided by club members who turn up in their numbers. This year's parades enjoyed fairly good weather which contributed to another large turnout of spectators and it was generally agreed that both events were enjoyed by all concerned.
Now in it's 6th year, Oban's Winter Festival runs from Friday, 18th November until Sunday, 27th November and an integral part is "The Reindeer Parade", which is sponsored by Bid4Oban. Since inception, Oban Rotary has played a major part in the management of " The Reindeer Parade" and the 2016 event was no exception with up to 20 Rotarians in attendance.
"The Reindeer Parade" , which starts at 5pm involves live reindeer pulling "Santa" in a sleigh from the Corran Halls through to Station Square, led by the Oban Pipe Band, followed by youngsters from the local schools and other interested groups. Santa was joined in the sleigh by primary school children who were winners of youth projects promoted by Oban Rotary. The streets from the Corran Halls to Station Square were lined by the local community and all were agreed that this was the best turn out ever. The procession was favoured by a lull in the weather which remained benign between 5pm and 6.30pm, when the parade finished.The arrival at Station Square gives the public, and especially the children, access to Santa and indeed the reindeer, the latter being extremely child friendly and all concerned awaited the switching on of the Christmas lights which took place at 6pm. In line with all events in which Rotary is involved, the " Reindeer Parade " went to plan and all concerned can be assured that this particular part of the Winter Festival lived up to expectations. Another feature of the parade was the distribution of glow lamps, in different colours, to all the children present although a number of adults also felt that they should be included (!) and this added to the spectacle.