Entrepeneurs Actually Supporting the Arts - My Letter of Support for BeTeased Patron Participation Endorsement

Places like the Effie Arts Collective, or in this case, BeTeased Food Truck in the Shuswap - are part of a long line of community arts spaces that we have celebrated collectively time immemorial. Each year that passes the regulatory climate they operate in becomes less and less able to do so - even though our parents and grandparents - rich and poor, participated meaningfully and inclusively in their communities this way for decades. 

For this reason, one needs to write letters to support food trucks so that they can host a community dance - the type of event that they have been hosting successfully for ages. I decided to include my letter as the subject of this post.

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The girls held their hands in front of them and squirmed their fingers. The
boys tapped their feet restlessly. Around the floor the old folks sat, smiling slightly,
holding the children back from the floor...
And the girls were damp and flushed, and they danced with open
mouths and serious reverent faces, and the boys flung back their long hair and pranced,​ pointed their toes, and clicked their heels. In and out the squares moved, crossing,​ backing, whirling, and the music shrilled.​ Then suddenly it stopped. The dancers stood still, panting with fatigue. And the​ children broke from restraint, dashed on the floor, chased one another madly, ran, slid,​ stole caps, and pulled hair. 

- "The Grapes of Wrath" Chapter 24, Steinbeck

I start with this Steinbeck quote - as it illustrates the fantastic community events that folks have joined in for time immemorial. In the middle of the Depression, the greatest excitement imaginable for kids, youth, parents and grandparents was the community dance. I have uncles and aunts in my own family that met their future partners and built their families from community dances from Demmit to Penticton to Edmonton.

In 2024 however, we have a 'No Fun' problem in BC. A problem where we all want 'vibrancy' 'arts' 'community-events' 'third-places'. But we have a set of rules; from LCRB to Health to Worksafe, municipalities and more that restrict our vibrancy - our ability to join our community in fun, good times and support the arts.  We pay lip service to "Supporting the Arts" but folks like BeTeased - that is what they are doing and having to fight hard to do so. Those great, community centered dances of decades past cannot exist anymore between the regulations and litigations of today. I would argue events and places like these are part of our discordant modern culture.

Institutions like BeTeased - folks who step up to the plate for their community, who actively and passionately work for their citizens and take up the responsibility of improving public life in BC - they need to be supported by our regulatory climate and patron participation is one way they do just that. BeTeased hosts just the sort of Community Center written about by Steinbeck, and enjoyed by our parents and grandparents. Forums in which our families and friends can revel in each others company - in a place which pulls people together and celebrates what we have in common, not what divides us.

Do I attach too noble a cause to BeTeased? I think not. Without passionate community advocates that put their blood, sweat and tears on the line; that gamble their hearts, homes and lives for the betterment of those around them - without folks like BeTeased we might as well just open another chain-casino and walmart, so that the Walton family can keep us commoners off their Douglas Lake Ranch, while they mine and extract the lifeblood of our communities.

Against all challenges, Be Teased has navigated a hard world to be a successful and well operated family operation that has built core memories and experiences for people of all ages, from all places - just as we used to do.

I wholeheartedly support BeTeased in their Patron Participation endorsement - I regret only that it has to be so hard for passionate community advocates to do the right thing. 

In support,

Mitchell Forgie

778-220-9090