| Organizers make most of carnival |
| Poor weather doesn't discourage plans for
an annual event |
| By Allison Kennedy |
| Enterprise-Bulletin Special (Tue, February 13, 2000) |
| COLLINGWOOD - Despite extremely cold and windy weather, a
few brave souls came out to keep the spirit of Collingwood's Winter
Carnival alive. |
| After a ten-year absence, organizers were determined to
bring the winter carnival back to the town. |
| And they did. |
| "We knew with the right team we could pull it off, and
we did, except for the weather," said Tori Varganyi, the town's
municipal events facilitator. |
| With Friday's heavy rain an Saturday's flash freeze,
conditions were less than perfect for many events. While the
schedule was originally packed with interesting activities, many had to be
cancelled. |
| Snowmobile demonstrations at Fishers Field were called off,
an ice fishing competition was cancelled after organizers observed about
18 inches o slush on top of the ice, and touch foot-ball was pretty much
out of the question with the ground either frozen or wet. |
| "We just got beat out by the weather," said Ken
Templeman, chair of the Winter Carnival committee. "But the
committee struggled through and presented a great agenda. We were
disappointed, that goes without saying. |
| "But not because of the weather, not because things
didn't come together." |
| Character definitely shone through in the snow pitch
tournament. With eight teams and 120 players coming out, they played
from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. |
| After delaying their 8 a.m. start upon discovering that the
diamond at Mountain View Public School was too wet, they moved to
Exhibition Park, determined to play. |
| "It was a major success and it went beyond my
expectations," said Paul Hollingshead. "We had a great
team of volunteers, from Don Cherry's t the umpires, they were out there
all day and they didn't get a nickel." |
| Team Last Minute from Alliston won the tournament, with
A&P coming second and Brian's, sponsored by the Mountain View, taking
third place. |
| The tournament was so successful, Hollingshead, along with
john Eaton, has started planning a second tournament on March 10.
With an entry fee of $50 per team, it is intended as a thank-you to all
the teams that stuck out the cold conditions at the Winter Carnival.
There will be bands and karaoke throughout the day. |
| And on the ball hockey court, players resolved to have fun. |
| "There were only two teams, but they made the most of
it," said Varganyi. "It was disappointing, a lot of people
signed up. |
| "But to be honest, I was worried about little kids
being out in the cold." |
| A group of four teachers from Jean Vanier took on a team of
four kids, battling it out for two hours. |
| "I told the kids to take it easy on teh old guys, and
I told the teachers to take it easy on the kids," said Templement. |
| The John Marshall Band gave a valiant performance from the
stage behind the arena. "It was so cold, they couldn't keep
their guitars in tune," said Varganyi. |
| Volunteers from the Future Cafe kept the children's area
going, painting the faces of many chilly children. |
| "You know it's cold when you pour a customer a beer
and by the time you hand it over, it's started to freeze into a beersicle,"
said Templeman. |
| So the fate of the Winter Carnival is up in the air or next
year, but organizers say they would like to try it again. |
| "I think we learned some things this year, and we've
already started talking about what we would do if we did it again.
We have our wrap up meeting next week, and then we'll decide whether we'll
do it again." said Templeman. |
|
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