The Brant United Way has withdrawn from the Brantford air show this year due to concerns about how proposed changes to the school year
might affect the event. But event co-organizer Gary Surette said the Sept. 2 show will go on. “There will be an air show and it will be a dandy,” Surette said Thursday in a telephone interview from Florida, where he is holidaying. “I’m angry and getting emotional,” added Surette, still quaking after receiving word of the pullout decision made at Wednesday night’s United Way board of directors meeting. Board members made the decision after discussing potential consequences of proposed changes to the school year that would see students back to class prior to Labour Day, Brant United Way executive director Dianne Austin said Thursday. Such a change will affect both spectator counts and the availability of student volunteers at the event, she said. “It was a tough decision” to pull out of the event, Austin said. “It’s been a mainstay in the community for a long time.”
However, the United Way board felt it had no alternative, she said.