ELORA – Every year in October, Elora’s downtown comes alive with monsters, mushrooms and all things macabre during “Monster Month”.
Organized by Sensational Elora, and originally created by local artist Tim Murton, these giant art pieces have become a highly anticipated addition to the town since their initial creation around 20 years ago.
Monster Month committee chair Kirk McElwain is content with how things are going so far this year.
“It’s going quite well,” he said.
“We don’t have as many to do this year, so we’re on track to get everything done before the beginning of October.”
From year to year there are about eight to 10 restoration volunteers who spend time painstakingly restoring the pieces.
“We meet every Tuesday morning this year,” McElwain said. “Last year, we did it two days a week, but with the progress we’ve made, we cut it down to once a week.”
The amount of time spent on any given piece varies depending on the size and complexity, but they try to get at least two or three pieces done in a day. In total, McElwain estimates there to be around 100 or more pieces.
Currently, the restoration work is being done at 19 Mill Street East, a short walk from where most of the life-sized creations are displayed.
Due to renovations of the property, a new storage space will have to be found for the monsters soon.
“We’ve been told that we will have access to the space until next spring,” McElwain said. “We’re looking at alternatives, but it’s going to be hard to find something that works so well because our current location is so close to downtown and we can carry [the pieces] to install them instead of having to truck them in.”
The goal each year is to have all the monsters installed by Oct. 1.
For information on how to get involved, visit sensationalelora.com or monstermonth.ca.
Fixer upper – Monique Brouwer and Kirk McElwain work together to restore one of the more than 100 monsters for this years event.
A monster of a job – Volunteers meet weekly begining in July to restore the pieces.
