by Hilary Thomson
A local Adirondack chair company helped to officially launch the start of the North Grenville tourism season on Friday with the unveiling of one of their giant Adirondack chairs in Rotary Park.
The project was started by The Great Adirondack Chair Company earlier this year as a way to give back to the community after seeing their sales surge throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The company built five over-sized Adirondack Chairs to be placed throughout the municipality at Rotary Park, Paul’s Bistro in Oxford Station, The Brigadoon in Oxford Mills, Bishops Mills Community Hall and the Giving Garden along Country Road 43.
The Great Adirondack Chair Company employees spent many hours building the chairs throughout the Spring, and the company partnered with several local organizations including the Municipality of North Grenville, The North Grenville Chamber of Commerce and Kemptville Fences and Decks, who all sponsored one of the chairs. Classic Graphics donated all the vinyl decals on the chairs as well as the QR Codes which point visitors to the municipality’s business directory and website.
The chairs have also all been painted to reflect their surroundings by local artists, including Shauna O’Reilly, with the help of her mother, who painted the chair in Rotary Park. “They took numerous hours to paint the chair in the evenings, after work and after long hours of studying,” said Vice President of Sales for The Great Adirondack Chair Company Dina Elatawi.
Chair of the Old Town Kemptville BIA, Meagan Cumming, was also on hand to celebrate the installation of the first chair in downtown Kemptville. “We are so excited to have this chair here,” she said. “We’re looking forward to the ways that it’s going to revive tourism after a year and a half in this pandemic.”