Portage's 13th annual Potato Festival could use your help this weekend. Co-chair Cindy McDonald's asking for volunteers, and explains it's the biggest festival yet.

"We need them as soon as possible. Our volunteer coordinator needs to figure out where to put people, and how many more people we're going to require. I think we're looking for twenty to thirty more people. The reason being this year is it's a two-day festival, so we need more people for Friday."

She notes a new addition is their own concession stand.

"The reason we're running our own concession is because that brings in more funding for us, or more money for us, for next year to make it bigger and better, as well to help us apply for grants for a two-day festival. If you help us make this a fantastic two-day event, we can apply for some grants to get more funding to make it bigger and better next year, and we can start adding more things onto the festival. We can add more to the children's activity; we can add more entertainment; we can have a big headliner. These things all cost a lot of money."

McDonald explains a lot's involved in running free festivals.

"The entertainment costs, the children's activity. Everything costs a lot. When you volunteer your time, you could take pride in the fact you're helping this after 13 years to hopefully continue another 13 years. I know when I volunteer my time, for me it's giving back to the community."

She adds the volunteers who keep coming back have a real passion to see it continue for years to come. 

"All of our volunteers are treated amazingly. They all get a free T-shirt; they all get a free gift; they all get a free meal. We also have a chance to win some great prizes as well. So, please come on out. We need two or three hours of your time to make it a fantastic event, so we can build on it and make it bigger and better every year."

McDonald stresses volunteers are actually part of the process to access the larger grants. 

She says it's worth it all when you volunteer and see someone come out and express how great Portage is, how great the event was. McDonald says if you've never volunteered, there's a lot of fun to be had in meeting community members as well as people you know.

You can volunteer at portagepotatofest@gmail.com for a quick reply to get you all set up.

http://portagepotatofest.ca/