The Town of Midale has come up with a promotion to help new residents in the community feel more welcome.
Vanessa Lund, who is the town’s administrative assistant, said the town is piecing together a kit that will include gift certificates and merchandise from businesses in the community, and other information from the town.
It’s an effort to help newcomers learn what’s in the community, and to feel like they belong by getting free things.
The initiative just started, and the town has been sending out letters. They have yet to hand out a kit to anyone who has arrived.
“The idea is that this will be a nice welcome to people, and also it is a promotion for our businesses in town as well,” said Lund.
The business community has appreciated the idea so far.
Lund noted there haven’t been requests for something like this in the past, but the town council decided to be pro-active to promote Midale.
She has heard that there used to be a similar effort in the community, but it fell by the wayside. When she moved to the town nine years ago, the packages weren’t being distributed.
Lund doesn’t know of any small communities that have such a program, but it is common in larger centres to have a Welcome Wagon or something else.
She hopes they can have as many people as possible on board, from the bank to the service stations, and from the Saskatchewan Government Insurance agency to the two restaurants, which would allow them to have a little bit of everything.
And it shows how much Midale has to offer.
“People who come here might not know that there is a pool, or where the library is, so this will give them some of that information,” said Lund.
