A group of Georgian College students are busy putting the final touches on the biggest project of the year — which will also serve as a fundraiser for an important local charitable organization.
Simranjot Kaur, Regan Kenler, Jamie Tuckett and Sikemi Oye, along with six of their fellow event management classmates, are in the final stages of planning Mocktail MADDness, an event for which students are responsible for all aspects of planning a large event.
Scheduled for April 4 from 7-10 p.m. at the Barrie campus’s ABSC Event Space, Mocktail MADDness is being held in support of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Simcoe (MADD).
“We recognize the importance of bringing awareness to impaired driving and have decided to bring back the event in 2025,” program co-ordinator Marilyn Nigro tells BarrieToday.
The first Mocktail MADDness was held in 2011.
The students quickly jumped on board with the idea, and began making it their own.
“We just took it and added some details (and) took some out. (We) are making it a bit fancier,” says Kenler. “We were originally going to have it on a weeknight, but opted to host it on a weekend and try to make it more elegant.”
Since 2011, event management students have produced at least two events per year — with 2025 marking the program’s 15th anniversary of hosting the capstone events, and have raised an average of $3,000 per year between the various events, says Nigro.
“This would represent $45,000 over 15 years,” she says, adding past events have helped support a variety of local charities ranging from the Barrie Food Bank, Georgian College Food Locker, MADD Canada, Hospice Simcoe, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, Seasons Centre for Grieving Children and Cody's House-Youth Mental Health Centre, to name just a few.
The plan is to have between six and eight local restaurants — including Montana’s, State & Main, East Side’s Mario and Mexican House — attend and share their signature mocktail with guests, says Oye.
They are hoping the event will serve as not only a way to help raise money for the local chapter of MADD, but that it will also help bring attention to the local restaurants who have non-alcoholic cocktails on their menu for those who prefer not to imbibe.
The group admitted they were surprised when they first set out working on the project back in the fall to discover just how accessible non-alchoholic beverages were.
“There’s a lot more mocktail stuff online that I’ve seen. I think it’s a lot more trendy now than it was before, especially when trying to find them on (restaurant) websites … they all had mocktails on their menu which I don’t really remember before,” says Tuckett.
“We noticed (grocery stores) have a giant selection of mocktails that we just didn’t notice before,” adds Kenler.
Guests will have the chance to vote on their favourite mocktail as well as take part in a raffle in the hopes of winning one of a variety of prizes totalling more than $1,000. Several vendors will also be on hand selling their wares, says Kaur.
“DriveWise is also bringing their impaired driving simulator to show how drastic impaired driving can be and the dangers around it and bring awareness to it,” says Tuckett
Working together as part of a large group has definitely been a big learning experience, they all agreed, adding they believe it will go a long way in helping them in their future careers.
“We just tried to meet in the middle,” Oye says when asked how they handled any potential differences of opinions during the planning process.
With only a few weeks left until they get to see all the hard work come to fruition, they are feeling a mix of emotions, Oye says.
“We are excited and we can’t wait to see the outcome and the response from people," Oye adds. "We are also (nervous) ... what if we don’t hit our target? Is this even going to fly?”
Despite the nerves, they're confident that all their hard work will pay off in the end.
“I think everything is starting to come together," says Tuckett.
“It’s the first big event that we’ve done, so even if something doesn’t go as planned, we will still learn from it no matter what,” adds Kenler.
Tickets for the event can be purchased online.