Final day

Thunder Bay residents had a few more buildings to look through in order to find spring renovation ideas at this year’s Home and Garden show.

Thousands of people attended the three-day event, which started on Friday, in order to look at some of the latest products for home renovations. The event was held on the CLE grounds and at the Sports Dome.

Bruce Carli, co-chair of the Home and Garden Show, said he estimated that 20,000 show enthusiasts will have come through by the end of day on Sunday. He said the Sports Dome gets a lot of credit during the event but he wanted to point out that the show has expanded to include five buildings on the CLE grounds this year.

“We’ve got the entire grounds covered,” Carli said. “We had a waiting list of exhibitors and we went over to ask the folks at the Clayton building if they would lease it to us. We’re already anticipating for boosts for next year.”

With more than 20 exhibits, the Home and Garden Show doesn’t always have a single draw for people to come in so instead, the biggest draw is always the chance to see new products for spring, he said.

Carli said timing is always critical when putting on the show. The event always falls during the time when it’s too cold to go outside but everyone is eager for the weather to warm up. He said that’s the best time to show off some of the new products.

“I think this gives them a little taste of spring,” he said. “Some people may say the recent snowfall may affect attendance but I think some people are say ‘well it’s snowing out let’s go inside to the Home and Garden Show’.”

But not all the exhibits were for spring decorations.

About a hundred parents decided to spend 15 minutes of their time in order to fill out the necessary data for the Child Identification program. Parents gave details such as their child’s sex, birth date, description and provided a photo and fingerprint sample.

Pat Curran, regional coordinator for the Masonic Chip Program, said having these kinds of details help police find missing children. The whole process is free and the parents keep all information regarding their children. He said it could prove invaluable for those looking for a missing child.

“You can hand that information to a law enforcement agent and within minutes you can have an amber alert,” Curran said. “(Missing children) is a big problem in Canada and the United States. Children whose parents break up go missing or teenagers run away. At least with this they know what they are looking for.”

Curran said parents who do it on their own might have a difficult time such as getting an accurate fingerprint from an inkblot.

He added that parents should update the information every year or 16 months.