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Whistlerites and guests will gather at Meadow Park next week to celebrate the end of summer, the talent of local youngsters and B.C.’s incredible rivers during a day of outdoor fun.
Rotary Family Fun Day and B.C. Rivers Day, which takes place next Saturday (Sept. 21) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., is a partnership of this area’s three Rotary clubs — two in Whistler and one in Pemberton — and of the organizations (including the Resort Municipality of Whistler and Whistler Fisheries Stewardship Group) that have organized B.C. Rivers Day for the past 11 years.
Gord Leidal, a member of the Rotary Club of Whistler board, on Monday (Sept. 8) said that after last year’s inaugural Rotary Family Fun Day, someone mentioned that B.C. Rivers Day was on the following weekend and included activities that would dovetail nicely with the Rotary celebration. The two organizations came together and decided to combine their efforts into one, larger celebration.
“We felt that, since were drawing from more or less the same audience, we’d combine them,” Leidal said.
Said Betty Rebellato, fish and wildlife technician for the Resort Municipality of Whistler and one of the lead organizers of B.C. Rivers Day, “We thought it was a great idea to get more people together and more activities happening at once.”
The Fun Day portion of the celebration includes a wide variety of activities, including races, a tug-of-war, a barbecue, a bouncy castle, a gymnastics show featuring local athletes, and a barbecue. New this year is the Whistler Kids Got Talent Show, a chance for youngsters to strut their stuff on stage.
“We just thought it would be a fun thing to get little kids out to come up and do their thing on stage,” Leidal said, adding that participants can pre-register by emailing rotaryfamilyfundayinfo@telus.net
All participants in the talent show will receive a prize, Leidal said.
Another featured event is the soccer shootout in which youngsters will have a chance to take their best shot at a soccer goal with celebrity goalkeeper Mayor Ken Melamed.
Leidal said that unlike many Rotary-sponsored events, Rotary Family Fun Day is not intended as a fundraiser. He said donations will be accepted and that the clubs merely hope to break even at the event.
“This is one where we’re giving back to the community, trying to expose Rotary and the good work that it does,” he said. “We’re making the community more aware of what Rotary is all about, and celebrate the end of summer.”
He said each of the clubs — also including the Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium and the Rotary Club of Pemberton — will have a table at the fair, highlighting the charitable work the clubs do at home and abroad.
The B.C. Rivers Day portion of the event will feature a canoe scavenger hunt with youngsters and their parents on the River of Golden Dreams, ending with a carnival-style fish pond in which youngsters will be able to fish their prizes out of the water. As well, there will be fly-fishing demonstrations, and local naturalist Cara Richard will stage a predator-prey game for the youngsters.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is bringing along a giant inflated fish, inside which will be all manner of games and displays related to Canada’s aquatic environment. As well, the Whistler Fisheries Stewardship Group, the Lil’wat Nation Fisheries Program and Fraser River Sturgeon Society are sponsoring a presentation about a project to tag and track sturgeon on the Thompson River near Lillooet, Rebellato said.
Volunteers are needed to help with set-up, the canoe scavenger hunt, supersivision of the “Big Fish” tent and tear-down. For information about volunteering, please email brebellato@whistler.ca
Many local businesses are supporting the event, including AVW Telav, the Hilton Whistler Resort, Nesters Market, Marketplace IGA, Creekside Market, Zog’s, RMOW, Toad Hall Studios, The Question, Whistler Outdoor Adventures, Peak to Party Novelties and Sabre Rentals.
