Lorna Penman, chair of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Rotary Club’s annual Holiday House Tour, said this year’s event was the best yet, with nearly 4,800 tickets having been sold in total.
It was the event’s 20th anniversary, and Penman said feedback has been “fabulous,” and that the diversity of the homes was great this year. “They were all completely different from each other,” she said.
New this year were the VIP tours of the McArthur Home at the Romance Estate. Penman said the four time slots were sold out within a month. Each tour had 250 people on it, for a total of 1,000 tickets sold.
There were also 3,800 tickets sold for the main house tour, including six different homes. Penman said organizers stopped ticket sales once they reached that threshold, and they won’t sell any more than that in future.
“Lineups were long, so we’ll work on reducing that for next year,” said Penman.
All in all, she said she thinks everyone who attended had a good time.
Total funds raised will include both ticket sales and sponsorships, and Penman said it’s too soon for a final tally, but it will top all previous years. Half of the money raised will be used to support overseas charities, and the other half will be spent locally, including support for youth exchanges.
