Twenty-four nonprofit and community groups in the Oceanside area will share a record $89,270 after helping staff the entrance gate at this summer’s Parksville Beach Festival sand-sculpting exhibition. The Parksville Beach Festival Society announced the annual give-back on Oct. 9, and NanaimoNewsNOW reported the amount two days later. The money comes from a portion of visitor gate donations; the Society’s Oct. 9 release and NanaimoNewsNOW’s Oct. 11 report do not list each group’s individual share.
The arrangement connects a public summer attraction with organizations that serve the community throughout the year. Volunteers welcomed visitors at the exhibition gate, while the Society directed part of the donations collected there back to those groups. Society president Cheryl Dill told NanaimoNewsNOW that recognizing volunteer work is part of the nonprofit’s own purpose. This year’s $89,270 is a record for its annual community contribution.
The gate work is organized around volunteer groups rather than a single event-day shift. The Society’s volunteer page says each participating organization commits to between four and eight four-hour shifts, with at least six volunteers per shift during the competition weekend and the five-week exhibition. At the minimum staffing level, a single four-hour shift represents 24 volunteer-hours, before counting larger crews or additional shifts. In return, groups share proceeds from gate donations. The Society says that for some organizations, the contribution can be their largest fundraiser of the year.
That means the people staffing the entrance are part of how the event operates, not simply helpers arriving for a ceremony. The Society describes gate volunteers as “Goodwill Gate Ambassadors,” whose responsibilities include staffing the entrance and greeting visitors. Across a multiweek exhibition, those shifts add up to substantial time from local organizations. The same volunteer network helps connect festival visitors with groups working in the area.
The 2026 exhibition drew around 119,480 visitors through its gates to see the sand sculptures, according to NanaimoNewsNOW. The report described the sculptures as works created over several days in July. Cheryl Dill told the outlet that donations were slightly lower relative to the crowd size. The record total reflects the combined contributions and the Society’s community partnership, not a claim that every visitor donated.
The annual amount edged past the $88,201 shared among 24 groups in 2025, according to the Society’s volunteer page. This year’s announcement says 24 groups again helped with gate staffing. The record applies to the collective amount, not a uniform payment: the release and report do not give a group-by-group allocation schedule. The new total therefore cannot be read as the amount any one group received.
The Society’s full 2026 ambassador roster shows the breadth of the program, with care, hospice and stroke-recovery groups alongside arts, literacy, safety, seniors and sports organizations. NanaimoNewsNOW named several recipients, including Arrowsmith Care Home Society, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Oceanside Community Safety Volunteers, Parksville Lions Club and Rotary Club of Qualicum Beach. The outlet did not publish a complete list of recipient groups.
The Society’s Oct. 9 release also reported nearly 3,200 volunteer hours connected to the 2026 exhibition and said 25 percent of gate donations were shared with the participating organizations. Those figures help explain the program behind the headline donation: groups supplied a substantial block of event labor, and a stated share of gate donations returned to them. The volunteer hours and the $89,270 are different measures; neither establishes what any individual group received.
The cumulative effect is also visible in the Society’s longer history. NanaimoNewsNOW reported that the new total brings donations made since 1999 to more than $1.2 million. The outlet also reported that local contractors contributed in-kind help with parts of the event setup, including fencing, traffic control and sand. Dill credited those local relationships as another way the festival is supported beyond the gate.
The Society is now turning its attention to the 2027 event, NanaimoNewsNOW reported. No dates or next-year donation target were included in the report. For now, the confirmed result is a record $89,270 shared across 24 community groups, built through visitor donations and the volunteer shifts that made the summer exhibition welcoming.
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