The twelfth annual Shawville Lions Country Jamboree saw about 150 trailers park up at the Armstrong Farm off Hwy. 148 outside of Shawville for the weekend, to enjoy three days of Ottawa Valley country music.
“Its a lot of work to get going, but it’s nice to see when people start rolling in and we get some big crowds,” said Edward Walsh, chairman of the Lions club and mayor of Clarendon, while welcoming the crowd alongside Shawville mayor Bill McCleary on Thursday afternoon.
“I see a lot of the same faces here, year after year, so someone must be doing something right,” McCleary said looking out from the stage to the crowd gathered under the large white tents in lawnchairs, ready to take in the music to follow.
Immediately following the welcome, Rae Palmer, who was inducted into the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 2024, took over the mic. Over the course of the weekend, the stage was shared between 18 performers, and an additional 20 who participated in the open mic opportunities on Thursday.
The Jamboree is one of the many fundraisers the Lions club puts on so they are able to continue to support the local community with efforts such as supporting those who need to make frequent trips to the city to receive medical care, and recurring monetary donations to local food banks.
Earlier this year, the club donated $50,000 to the Pontiac Arena Fund, a group collecting money to repair the Pontiac Arena, which Walsh described as “the hub of the Pontiac.”
“And that’s all from people like yourselves coming to our events,” he said during the opening address, emphasizing that the club’s ability to give back is entirely thanks to ongoing support from the community.
