The Bamfield Mushroom Festival is an educational oriented volunteer organization, striving to promote awareness, honour, and celebrate our connection to the natural world around us in order to benefit & serve the community as a whole.
In 2007, for the first time in our festival’s five year history, our revenue exceeded our expenditures. From the proceeds of The 5th Annual Bamfield Mushroom Festival a sum of $1000.00, was allocated for donations to the community. The first $500.00 was donated to the Bamfield Volunteer Fire Department, to be put toward the Tsunami Warning and Preparedness Program; a cause all the volunteers agreed was of the utmost importance for our coastal village. The remaining $500.00 was donated to the Bamfield Volunteer Fire Department to be put towards the completion of new East Side Fire Hall kitchen. Due to the uncertainty surrounding lease of the Bamfield Community Hall the completion of this facility will assure that the Bamfield community continues to enjoy a full service venue where events & gatherings (with or without food) can be held.
The 6th Annual Bamfield Mushroom Festival, held in 2008, was also a success. The committee decided that besides having funds enough for the first time, to reinvest in the festival itself in the way of decorations, and some minor equipment, another $1000.00, would be donated to the community. Out of these funds a new microwave oven was purchased & installed in the Bamfield Community Hall (approx $100.00) and $300.00 was donated to purchase books for the Bamfield Community Library, housed at the Bamfield Community School. A total of $700.00 was put towards refurbishing the wooden street signs in West Bamfield and rebuilding the flower boxes along the Boardwalk. This was a joint venture with two other local organizations, namely the Bamfield Chamber of Commerce & the Bamfield Beautification Society.
In 2009, The 7th Annual Bamfield Mushroom Festival was met with even more success than the preceding two years. In all close to $3300.00 was donated to community organizations and projects. A sum of $750.00 was presented to the Community Emergency Program, towards the purchase of new radios which will serve to improve communications between volunteers in the event of a large scale emergency. Another $750.00 was also donated towards the Bamfield Volunteer Fire Department kitchen which benefits the community by being a centre for social activity as well as providing meals in emergency situations. A sum of $1030.00 was donated towards the painting of Bamfield’s Community Hall. This was a joint venture with Bamfield Community Hall Association. The project took close to a month to complete and involved over 1000 volunteer hours from numerous community members. And finally, the Bamfield Arts Council was also a recipient this year, receiving a total of $750.00, to be used towards a publicly displayed art project aimed at serving to beautify while depicting the uniqueness of our coastal community.
