Video and photos By Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – From the erection of ice sculptures in St. Jean Baptiste Park Saturday morning to the explosion of fireworks over Morinville Monday night, Family Day weekend was an active one with 18 separate events spread over three days for families to attend.
This year the Town of Morinville’s Community Services Department teamed with the Morinville Festival Society to put on the event. The festival committee took the ball … or puck … and ran with it, adding street hockey, ice sculptures, a family lunch and fireworks to the mix.
Partner businesses and organizations came to the table to add to the calendar of events, including the Lions Club’s Historical Celebration at the Rendez-Vous and the Morinville Fish and Game Association’s 7th Annual Bob Foster Kids Fun Fishing Derby, an event that had its largest turnout in recent years. New this year was a community lunch and cribbage afternoon at Higher Grounds. A chili lunch was made for 200 people and was gone a couple hours after the event started.
Other new and highly successful events included the Family Dinner and Dance at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre, an event that drew 250 parents and children for an evening of fun, music, dancing and children’s games. Proceeds from the event, put on by the festival society, go back into funding future festivals.
Other weekend activities included two family skating sessions at the arena, a broom ball demonstration and game and the annual community lunch.
Mayor Paul Krauskopf, when introduced Saturday as a Morinville celebrity, said the real celebrities were the organizers and volunteers of the weekend-long events. The mayor expressed his gratitude on behalf of the community for their efforts and for residents coming out to support the activities.
Big events – big budget
Festival Chair Paul Smith said the weekends activities cost approximately $29,000, roughly half of which were $7,000 in kind contributions from the Town of Morinville and the Morinville Festival Society. In terms of cash money – the Town of Morinville contributed $2,000, the festival society $13,000. Smith said the society’s cash funding came from sponsor investment and revenues from past festival. None of the $35,000 contributed by the Town to the society was touched for the weekend’s events.
For more photos from this weekend’s activities see our Weekend in Photos section
a snowman ice sculpture guards the entrance to St. Jean Baptiste Park Saturday. – Stephen Dafoe Photo
Fireworks explode over Morinville Monday night at the conclusion of three days of festivities. – Stephen Dafoe Photo
1 Trackback / Pingback
Comments are closed.