THUNDER BAY — From sleigh rides to snowshoes or even a petting zoo, Current River Community Centre’s annual Winter Carnival had many options for a fun winter afternoon.
The Carnival began on Friday evening with a crib and shuffleboard tournament, continued on Saturday with outdoor activities and concluded on Sunday with a pancake breakfast.
“We've been doing this carnival for several years . . . somewhere around 40 years. It's been going on in this building alone just over 25 years. It's wonderful. We have a lot of people here and every year, we have more people coming out."
“All the people that were young years ago are now actually coming and helping out, which is really great. The legacy is really wonderful,” said Lynne Legros, chair of the Winter Carnival.
This year was a first for the petting zoo, Legros said, adding that she is looking forward to having even more animals next year.
The event was free to attend and saw many different families enjoying a winter day.
The Winter Carnival is “growing a lot now since COVID. Because we couldn't do it before that, we found that actually it was kind of dwindling off a little bit, so that's when we decided, 'Okay, we got to revamp it and let's get some new ideas in here.'"
“The snow shoes have been really popular too. It's growing, and we're finding the people that were out here doing boot hockey when they were six or seven years old are now here with their children,” Legros said.
Ruth Wolsiffer, owner of Barnyard Friends, attended the Winter Carnival with some furry friends for the first time.
“We're here to help entertain the kids and the adults with some bunnies, a goat and a chicken. We have two high school volunteers here as well, helping out to make things easy for everybody to play with.”
Wolsiffer said that after a previous barn fire, combined with winter being a slow time for the business, when they were offered a spot to join the carnival, they were all in.
“If they call us, we'll certainly be back. We normally have more animals, but this winter, we're slowly rebuilding because normally, we would have a lamb and baby bunnies. We have all kinds of stuff, but this year we didn't because we're behind, so we will be bigger and better next year,” Wolsiffer said.
Jessica Abbott owns the horses and provides carriage rides at the Winter Carnival.
Abbott said they did about six carriage rides within the first hour.
Attending the Current River Community Centre is something that is special for Abbott.
“Some of it is nostalgia because we were married here with Spartan as our carriage horse. It was one of the few venues in town that allowed us to bring the horse and carriage to do our medieval wedding.
“They've been wonderful people. They always accommodate us. If there's snow, they plow it. If it's raining, they give us a spot to stand. They've just been wonderful,” Abbott said.
