Manitouwadge Children’s Festival VERY Successful Though Teens Opt Out
Line ups were long throughout the day as parents and kids enjoyed the 2012 Children's Festival. All Photos Copyright OntarioNewsNorth.com
MANITOUWADGE, ON – Saturday, May 26th the township’s Community Services Department held their annual Children’s Festival at the Recreation Centre with some very careful and cleverly placed changes.
The afternoon kicked off with a “Glow Show”; a glow in the dark play acted out upstairs in the curling club, to the delight of 60-70 kids and parents by Community Programmer Shawna Patterson and her staff. Patterson has organized several successful dinner theaters in recent years and so it was a surprise to no one that this show, though much smaller in scale, offered huge entertainment appealing to both the kids and their parents.
The traditional 0-7yr old events, were held in the auditorium from 1-4 with lines up at games like Antler Ring Toss, Plinko, ect throughout the entire afternoon. Though these have sometimes been done with a fee of $0.25-$0.50 they were free this year, winners of the games earning tickets they could cash-in for prizes. In the past when these games had a fee they were used as fundraisers by different organizations or non-profits in town and it remains unclear whether there was no interest from groups (as does happen in Manitouwadge) or if a different route was just chosen by Community Services. Regardless of the reasons behind the change in fees, the children certainly loved the format and this Free Children’s Festival has the added bonus of excluding no one – regardless of income or budget – ensuring all children in Manitouwadge could enjoy the afternoon.
Face painting was provided by none other than Community Programmer Shawna Patterson who seemed to have an endless list of creatures, characters and themes in her repretoire, kids and parents were thrilled with her artistic abilities provided, free of charge. Bravo!
Later the same evening, the Children’s Festival continued. New to 2012 the festival branched out to offer Minute to Win It at two seperate times for pre-teens and teens. The pre-teen age group responded well and, for a first time including something for their ages, having approximately a dozen participants (the maximum was only 4 more) could certainly be considered a hit. Unfortunately the 2nd Minute to Win It hour, slated for older teens, did not see adequate attendance and was cancelled this unfortunately ending what was otherwise a very successful event on a bit of a sour note. It can only be hoped that the teens will provide Community Programmer Shawna Patterson with feedback regarding why they chose to turn down an attempt at including them in the Festival – community services, in any small town, work with “Use it or loose it” type of terms and it can only be guessed that without some explanation for the lack of teen participation in the Children’s Festival, the programming adding specifically for them will likely not be there at next year’s festival.
Overall the Children’s festival, including it’s new inclusion of ‘older’ children (at least the pre-teens) seemed to be a huge success, well attended and enjoyed by parents and children alike – Bravo Community Services, two thumbs up!
What did you think of the 2012 Manitouwadge Children’s Festival? Share your thoughts by commenting below as Community Services can neither continue to provide what you like nor fix what you don’t without your feedback!
