Killaloe – Killaloe boasts the proud reputation of being the “Birthplace of BeaverTails”, the internationally renowned pastry treat, and now a new partnership has been formed to bring further recognition and promotion of its proud history.

At the April 19 meeting of Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR) Township council, Community Development Co-ordinator Chris Neff reported details have been finalized to create a new partnership between Grant and Pam Hooker, founders of Beaver Tails, the Virk family of Killaloe, owner/operators of the local BeaverTails outlet, and the municipality.

The project involves the creation of two cut-out promotional signs to be installed at the local BeaverTails outlet at Creekside Grille in Killaloe where patrons can take photos in the cut-outs featuring illustrations of beavers and the Birthplace of BeaverTails motto.

“I brought this on your radar a while ago but we’re actually at the point now where everything’s been approved,” Mr. Neff said. “This has already been in my budget for 2022, so the items shouldn’t be a surprise in that regard.

“What we’re looking to do is be able to procure the signs and start to work on it as soon as we think we can install it,” he added.

Mr. Neff said the estimate cost of the two signs is $4,000 with a 50/50 split between the BeaverTails group and the municipality.

“These signs are going to be used virtually forever and are cut-outs of people as beavers” he commented. 

He explained there will be one taller sign for adults and a shorter sign for children. Both will have the motto “Birthplace of BeaverTails” at the top.

“The idea being that people can have an experience when they come to Killaloe and there will be photos that show Killaloe is the actual Birthplace of Beaver Tails,” he noted. “In the future, we can incorporate contests into this.

“There was a lot of back and forth, but I felt this was a tangible asset and it was really important to have something that can continuously be used year after year and continuously can get return on investment by people taking pictures,” he added. “People love this kind of stuff.”

He encouraged council to imagine visitors going to get their BeaverTails and as they wait in line, they notice this” really fun cut-out sign” and they take a picture and it says, Killaloe, Birthplace of BeaverTails.

He said often signs miss their mark due to a lack of purpose, but these signs are multi-purpose.

“It’s going to be something to do, it creates an experience in the village and it also creates notoriety to the village,” he remarked.         

Mr. Neff, Mayor Janice Tiedje and CAO Sue Sheridan had discussed the project and felt it would be a good initiative to be part of and share the costs.

In addition, new brochures will be distributed across the municipality, including the Visitor Information Centre.  

 Mr. Neff noted that Jot Virk and the Killaloe Sunrise Fund will be contributing an additional $2,000 into social media and he will help them track the analytics to see who is searching the usage of the sign and who is using social media.

“This is a step of good faith on their behalf that they are going to invest the money and if the data turns out to be good, then perhaps in the future, we might invest in that.”

Council unanimously supported the project.