This fall a self-guided tour of local homes decorated for autumn is only a ticket away.
The Our Village Home Tour is a new endeavour to raise money for a “Mission of Love” trip to Guatemala in January.
“Fall is just such a beautiful time of year and most home tours in my experience are Christmas and I thought why don’t we try something new and do a fall home tour,” said tour chair Karen Kamphuis.
She will also be participating in the Guatemala trip.
The Our Village Home Tour runs from 10am to 4pm on Sept. 30 and a $25 ticket gives visitors access to four homes – one each in Belwood and Fergus and two in Elora – that will be professionally decorated for the season.
The houses in Fergus and Elora will also be offering do-it-yourself projects, including how to design a floral arrangement in a pumpkin, creating picture frames and creating pumpkin decorations. Tickets for the do-it-yourself stations can be purchased at ourvillagehometour.ca.
“We have no idea how that’s going to go. We don’t know if people will go ‘yay that’s awesome’ or ‘why would I want to do that?’” Kamphuis said.
“We’ve no idea but we just know that … DIY projects and people doing paint nights and craft nights are huge right now.”
Each house will also offer food sampling.
“We’ve got local food businesses that are … going to give little nibbles and treats to tour-goers so that’s always a big draw,” she said.
“People love food.”
Kamphuis explained the Centre Wellington home focus stems from the fact that many participants on the mission trip to Guatemala in January are Centre Wellington residents.
One hundred per cent of the proceeds from the Our Village Home Tour will go towards the Mission of Love trip. Kamphuis explained the Mission of Love team will spend about two days at a Guatemalan orphanage.
“We’ll help with … projects like painting, or giving them supplies like diapers and formula for the babies,” she said.
“This year, depending on the proceeds, all of the staff and nannies that they have at the orphanage, we want to give them a spa day out.
“So we’re hoping that we can do that because they just never get those opportunities.”
The team will also spend a few evenings distributing food, blankets and hygiene packages to homeless people in the community. Another day the team will be distributing bunk beds and possibly water filtrations systems and stoves to families in need.
“The bunk beds are $208 each and we purchase as many of those as we can. We want to do at least 10 and then we bring them to families,” Kamphuis said.
“We bring in the bunk beds, the mattresses, all the bedding, sheets, duvets, pillowcases all of that. So that’s just such a fun, fun day.”
There is still room available on the team. Those interested can contact Kamphuis at karen@joynusevents.ca.
For more information about the home tour visit ourvillagehometour.ca. Tickets can be purchased online or at 13 retailers listed on the website.
