We are sorry to have to announce that our Winter Field Day, which was to take place this Saturday, the 7th of March, is cancelled due to concerns over the Coronavirus. Several of our speakers have cancelled and other people have expressed concern. We will cover the same subjects next year. Here is a letter from our President, Bob Baines about this.
To members and fans of WWFRF – NW Fruit
I
am sorry to announce that we have canceled out 2020 Winter Field Day.
Coronavirus has been dominating the news for the past month, but
multiple cases and several deaths in Western Washington this week
have very much brought it “closer to home†Our event planners and
board members have been discussing whether to cancel for several
days. While public health experts have not called for a ban on public
events at this time, they have asked the public to remain calm but to
be cautious. Based on a vote of all of our Board of Directors we
agreed to cancel the event with no objections (with one vote of
“presentâ€). Several of our speakers and key event coordinators
had concerns about themselves or family members being in the “most
vulnerable†demographic groups and do not wish to attend. The
Winter Field Day is our most important event of the years and
regional fruit growers consider it one of highlights of the fruit
growing education calendar, but it would be a stretch to call it
essential. Without the key participants who have declined to attend
this year we don’t feel that we could provide the quality
experience that our guests have come to expect. Our sincere apology
to anyone who has been inconvenienced by our decision.
The
scionwood we have collected and prepared will be made available to
other regional fruit clubs if they decide to host their typical
spring fruit shows. We plan to host a fruit education event sometime
this summer to make up for the lost educational and outreach
opportunity. Such an event would include our annual membership
meeting which we normally have during the Winter Field Day.
Our
organization has been experiencing some recent growth and
revitalization which you can read about in my President’s Message
in our recent newsletter found on our website. I hope that we can
generate some new activity this year and turn this lemon into
lemonade. So please check the website regularly to see what’s
happening.
Bob
Baines
President
WWFRF
– NW Fruit