By Jerelyn Craden

Do you love the sight of colourful birds? Enjoy taking photos of nature? Do you think you might enjoy seeing one of your photos of a bird that is local to the area displayed on a banner in downtown Minden? How about adorning the main streets for two whole years? Then the Minden Banner Photo Contest is for you.

“I’m excited to see what people submit,” said Elisha Weiss, contest organizer and community development co-ordinator for the township of Minden Hills. “This year we have 26 banners that will fit on our main street section. If we don’t get enough individual entries, we will make multiple copies of the best few, so we would have doubles or duplicates.”

This year’s theme, Native Birds of Haliburton County, is a continuation of past years when banner images were taken from nature, the last being Wetlands.

“We thought, everyone loves birds and wouldn’t it be nice to showcase birds that are native to the area?” Weiss said. “The colour photos don’t need to be taken in Haliburton County as long as the birds are local in nature. In fact, the photos needn’t be recent. It’s fun to go through your photos and see if you already have one that would be nice to display.”

The banner initiative was first started by a local community group, then displayed by the town.

They were hand-painted on canvas. When the township took it over, they soon realized how time prohibitive the process was.

“It was so much work to get someone to sew the actual canvas for us,” Weiss said, “and then get people to come in, draw it on the canvas, then spend many days painting it. Plus, we needed a giant space to work in.”

In 2019, when the town wanted banners for the main street, instead of ordering generic ones from a company, they looked to the community. 

“We thought, we’ve got so many talented people living here, let’s put a call out and see if anyone’s interested in submitting some of their photos,” Weiss said. Eighteen submissions were received.

The Banner Photo Contest is presently open for submissions with a deadline of April 8.

“Hopefully we can get the winning entries (adjudicated by the staff of the community services department of Minden Hills), made into banners and displayed in time for the May 24 long weekend when tourists, cottagers, and everybody will be coming up,” Weiss said.

Entry forms can be obtained by contacting Elisha at eweiss@mindenhills.ca or picked up at the S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena reception desk Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.