WaterWays Township was a sponsor for the 2010 Great Ogeechee Seafood Festival held in Richmond Hill over the weekend of October 15-17, 2010. The Ogeechee Seafood Festival offers fun and family-friendly activities that showcase the Richmond Hill community as a great place to live, work and play. The festival's arts and crafts vendors, local business booths, nonprofit organization displays and the greatest seafood found anywhere, attract over 30,000 people to Richmond Hill for the weekend's activities.

Wow—what an event. We knew it was important for us to be involved with the Ogeechee Seafood Festival because it is an event that benefits our local community and supports the initiatives of the Chamber. As a Lobster sponsor, we helped create approximately $1,000,000 in local economic impact, and the Festival also provided us with an opportunity to introduce WaterWays to many of its visitors.

At the festival we set up a booth with large canvas photos displaying the natural beauty of the meandering waterways and the miles of marsh frontage at WaterWays, and an informational video for people who were interested in finding out more about our community. Working the booth was quite beneficial because it provided the opportunity to observe reactions from those event attendees who stopped to watch the video or to look at the stunning canvas images from the site. It also provided the opportunity to interact with visitors and to share our story in person. Throughout the weekend, we distributed numerous information flyers as well as WaterWays promotional items. This area has been waiting with anticipation for the introduction of WaterWays, and it was encouraging to talk with those who had questions about our community

At the end of the festival, it was difficult to select one single highlight from the weekend. Obviously, we were very excited about the reaction and reception to WaterWays that we received. The weather could not have been more perfect. On a personal note, however, I might add that the food was pretty amazing and I had great difficulty deciding on my favorite item (I still can't choose a favorite between the Boy Scout's peach cobbler and ice cream, the Exchange Club's jambalaya , or those incredible basket's of Love's fried shrimp). I guess it's just a situation that won't get resolved until next year's festival....I can't wait!

Make sure to check out my pictures from the Festival and other photos of our community on our new Facebook page.