Social media users in Niverville and the surrounding area have in recent years flocked to the Niverville Community Group (NCG) on Facebook. It’s been an active forum for people looking to share stories, discuss news, and promote local businesses and services.
The group currently has more than 3,500 members and the page’s administrator, Tristan Friesen, is creating a way to leverage its popularity to celebrate and support local business.
Friesen is calling the upcoming event the Niverville Community Days. It will get started on February 27 and run through March 3, and both NCG and the Niverville Community Buy, Sell, or Trade Facebook page will be in on the action.
Friesen says the event will help many local entrepreneurs grow their social media presence and also pick up new business in the process.
“My main goal here is to help support local businesses by turning this into an annual event,” says Friesen.
To start, Friesen has invited businesses from Niverville, Otterburne, and New Bothwell. However, he hopes to expand the invitation in future years to include St. Adolphe, Ste. Agathe, and other nearby communities.
The NCG page began around 2015 under the name Niverville Talks. Friesen joined the team as an admin when there were only about 300 members.
Over the years, and after several name changes, the group has evolved into its current form, but Friesen has been at the heart of the group for nearly that entire length of time.
“It’s not uncommon for me to hear people just wanted to join [NCG] for the drama, but I want to hopefully break that stigma and have it be known that this is a page where we can go [to] have good conversation and support locals,” he says. “It’s a small town, and the people I’ve worked for have all been amazing. There are places in town I know where if I lost everything, there would be many people waiting to help lift me up, so why can’t I do the same?”
Friesen has wanted to create an event like this for a long time but never felt that the timing was right.
In recent months, though, he has been adding to his administrative team and those additions made him feel confident that the time is now.
Recently, Friesen recruited Susan Shaver to join his team after she spearheaded a popular Christmas Treasure Hunt throughout Niverville. He says that Shaver’s upbeat spirit and community-minded ideas are exactly what he wants the Niverville Community Group to exude.
Friesen plans to add more moderators to assist with events like the Niverville Community Days and help the page maintain its positive vibe.
“I want to just raise community spirit and help local businesses,” Friesen says. “I’ve worked for Country Snacks, Niakwa Pizza, Piston Ring, and Southern Comfort Mechanical. I’ve lived either in, or within ten minutes of, Niverville my entire life. I truly love this place and just want to work to actively improve it like I’ve seen many people do over the last year.”
He adds that the post-Christmas period is always a quiet time for people working retail, food service, and delivery—and the Niverville Community Days event will hopefully be a way to kickstart the local economy.
“If I can use the page in a way to help support local, and support all these great local businesses, I feel obligated to do so.”
Friesen also wants to make it clear that the Niverville Community Days is a campaign to help grow the community and its businesses in a positive environment and that he is not promoting the event for any sort of personal gain.
“Neither I, nor any other admin or moderator, are receiving any form of compensation for this event,” he says. “Not financial, not even free fries!”
Those interested in taking part and seeing the specials on offer should join the Niverville Community Group, the Niverville Community Buy, Sell, or Trade group, or reach out to Friesen via Facebook Messenger for further details.