After the Canada Day Parade through downtown Sidney on our national birthday, the Peninsula Celebrations Society annually invites all parade attendees to spend part of their July 1 afternoon participating in Family Fun Day at Iroquois Park. This year’s activities included listening to several sets of all-ages popular music near the band shell, games for kids (sometimes inflatable slides and bouncy castle and rides are installed), kids’ face painting, the manufacture of helium balloon animals, and, of course, noshing on hot dogs, ice cream and similar snacks.
For the past fifteen years or so, part of this fun has involved kids of all ages being challenged to play Rotary-sponsored games as part of the proceedings. Sidney Rotarians set up and run two games where everybody gets a prize: Fishpond and the Pinball Race. Many of the smallest kids fish in blue-dyed water for small metal fish shapes or drop a wandering golf ball onto a slanted surface covered in pins where it rolls to a colored slot. A third game for the more senior kids (three to ninety-three), Karthump, involves lobbing softballs into milk and crème cans (it’s not as easy as it looks!) Parents seem to enjoy watching their kids doing their thing, and some of the more senior kids (i.e., the parents) often take a turn to try their luck too! And our club also raises some good coin to support our Rotary projects in the Sidney area.
The weather this year was perfect, the crowd was exuberant, and boy, were we busy! From the time the parade ended to about 2:45 pm, our club catered to over 600 families and raised over $1800 for our local projects! A fine haul for a fun day.
