As more Albertans receive vaccinations against COVID-19, the province is hopeful that residents will be able to enjoy a "normal" summer this year.

On Monday, Premier Kenney stated that just under half of Albertans should have a degree of immunity by May of this year, allowing gathering restrictions to ease significantly, and yes, he has even said that summer events may once again become a reality.

Cochrane and Area Events Society's (CAES) Secretary, Marina Chabbert says that the prospect of having a live Canada Day Event in Cochrane this year is exciting! Still, she says that they are exploring all of their options.

"We're being conservative," says Chabbert. "Planning for different scenarios at this point in time, because we need to, so we have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C."

CAES is currently in the process of ironing out just how those three scenarios would look, and Chabbert says they will proceed with the plan that they're able to, to ring in Canada's 154th Birthday.

"Of course our live event would be more like our traditional Canada Day celebration," says Chabbert. "A partial would be a mix of in-person and virtual, and we're also looking at the possibility of having events planned in different communities, then the full virtual would be no live activities at all."

Pivoting, and adapting plans has been the name of the game for the last year and counting. While Canada Day celebrations in Cochrane certainly looked different last year, Chabbert says they were successful nonetheless, with widespread participation from the Cochrane community.

"We had a lot of people joining us online, participating in our contests and just really getting into the day," says Chabbert. "Even though we didn't gather we still had such a great success rate just in our numbers from our Facebook to our website to Twitter to Instagram."

Premier Kenney is optimistic that by the end of June 64 per cent of Albertans will be immunized, removing gathering restrictions and allowing outdoor summer events like the "Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth" - the Calgary Stampede to make a comeback for 2021.