Summer. Dragon Boat Festival, Parry Sound. The crowd, the beer tent, and band later. The kids steal the show. Volunteers put everything together. There's such a lot of volunteering going on that there aren't enough paid jobs and 20% of the town's on social assistance and unemployment benefits during the winter off season. A trend happening everywhere. Started with bored seniors and housewives in the '50's and now it's the leading growth industry. I have a feeling low unemployment statistics from Washington to Ottawa factor in working volunteers, inventories and projections nobody could trace. Now, of course, we need and appreciate these volunteers, government quite happy to cut back on social services to make room for them. With festivals it's a different story. Socializing the majority of people has never been a government priority. Perhaps the anti socials they are supporting in jails, on welfare, in therapy, wouldn't be so antisocial if there was a public social life for everyone. Thanks, volunteers.
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