THUNDER BAY — SnowDay on the Waterfront returned this past Family Day afternoon with various winter activities for all ages.
Outdoor events ranged from the HMCS Griffon helping with a Scotties-inspired crokicurl rink, Science North hosting a Science of Snowy Sport workshop and Youth Move events to horse-drawn wagon rides and free maple taffy.
With chilly temperatures, indoor programming was also available with the Boreal Museum, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the Thunder Bay Museum and the Community Arts and Heritage Education Project.
“In previous years, we’ve had upwards of 10,000 people come out," said Karen Kadolph, the special events developer with the City of Thunder Bay.
"So we’re really hoping that people still will come out for the programming and we’re just really excited to see the community come together and to experience all of these different snow activities."
She said this year, they brought back their daytime programming.
“In 2023, we were very lucky. We were able to have our snow sculptures. We had daytime programming. But, then it rained the day before snow day, so everything was very icy. We had to change a couple of our programs and that kind of stuff,” said Kadolph.
“And then, in 2024, we didn’t have any snow, so we weren’t able to do our snow sculptures. We did an evening type of thing and it just didn’t really work out the same as our daytime programming.”
As such, Kadolph added that they were very excited that the snow finally came after they asked for it.
“For an event called SnowDay on the Waterfront. This is amazing. So, I’m very excited about the snow. It’s really nice to see,” said Kadolph.
She said the snow has supported them this year in having snowshoeing, snow sculptures and all of their programming throughout Marina Park.
As part of this programming, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Dorian Fish Culture Station and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters also came together to stock the pond with 60 lake trout for ice fishing.
“We have lots of people that are out there trying to catch a fish right now (and) very excited,” said Kadolph.
The snow sculpture competition also returned this year, featuring five different sculptures for people to vote on their favourites.
Paul Morralee, the Canadian Lighthouses of Lake Superior's managing director, sculpted the Shaganash Lighthouse with Andrew Ehn. He said they were inspired to do a lighthouse since it is about connecting in the community and symbolically tells the story of trans-shipment.
“I wanted to get our organization involved in doing a snow sculpture so that we could keep telling the story of trans-shipment,” said Morralee.
“We live in this city of trans-shipment, the movement of product back and forth, and the lighthouse is very important to have that picture demonstrated — that the movement of product is going past these lighthouses.”
He said being there and sharing that story lets people see Thunder Bay in a different light.
“It took us about 20 man hours to do the actual sculpting (and) the moving of the snow away from a block of snow we started with. And as we carved it out, we froze. It (has) been pretty cool out here and we persevered,” said Morralee.
The one-to-five scale of the lighthouse, located 54 km from the waterfront, is the most recent snow sculpture Morralee has worked on since he sculpted the Coca-Cola polar bear in 1996.
He added that they have been seeing an amazing number of families out enjoying the winter and it’s been really great.
The city also encourages residents to look online to see the tons of summer events it has planned next, including its Quest: Tech and Gaming event and the Drone Show.
