Village of Richmond House and Holiday Tour supports Richmond Food Bank

By Jeff Morris

Manotick Messenger

The sunshine and bitter chill in the air made a perfect recipe for the warmth of the third annual Village of Richmond House and Holiday Tour, which took place in and around Richmond Saturday.

Tickets were $25, and all ticket sales for this self-driven tour of Holiday Homes go towards support of the Richmond Food Bank. The event is sponsored by Sonya Kinkade Design and various businesses in the Village of Richmond and surrounding areas. Kinkade started the to help support the food bank.

“The first year we held the event, the food bank was in dire straits, they didn’t have any food,” Kinkaid said.

Kinkade, who is a designer, had been to tours in Ottawa, and had the idea of bringing the concept to the country and hold it in South Carleton.

“I kind of wrapped my head around it and thought it would be a fun thing to do,” she said.

In the beginning, the participating homeowners put up their own money to decorate their homes for the tour.

“Last year, I decided to bring in sponsors, so the local businesses would sponsor different homes to be decorated,” she said.

In the first year, Kinkade decorated all the homes. This year, she decorated three of the six homes on the tour.

“Now, we have homeowners who want to step up and decorate their own homes,” she said.

Kinkade said that the event continues to grow, but there was a point this year when she thought the event would not happen.

“It’s a struggle to get sponsors, and this year I didn’t think it was going to happen at all,” she said. “I even posted on Facebook that I wasn’t going to do the tour, but then some people and sponsors stepped up and we were able to move forward.”

Kinkade said that the success of this year’s tour will help lay the groundwork for a bigger and better event next year.

“For next year, we definitely have to have more people step up, but the better it gets, the more people will want to be a part of it,” she said. “We have the homes that want to take part, and the ticket sales continue to grow to support the food bank. We just need more sponsors to grow.”

Kinkade said she is already looking at the potential for expanding the tour.

“We’re gong to branch out a little bit more,” she said. “There are larger, beautiful stone homes in the outlying areas that want to take part. It’s still in support of the food bank, but it’s a driving tour, so as long as it’s not too far, that would be good.”

The tour is always looking for houses in Richmond and outside of Richmond to feature and encourages people to reach out to them if they would like to nominate a home.

To follow all the information about the tour you can like the event on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thevillageofrichmondholidayhouseandbusinesstour/.