Foster Lake Park Family Fun Day delights community

By Mike Riley

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Carlow Community Recreation Board hosted its Family Fun Day at Foster Lake Park on Feb. 18, which was of course Family Day across Ontario. Attendees from all over Carlow Mayo Township and beyond came out to enjoy the myriad activities available to enjoy. Mayor Randy Wallace comments on this fun day for the Carlow Mayo community.

On Family Day, Feb. 18, the Carlow Recreation Board hosted a Family Fun Day at Foster Lake Park for the whole community. The event began at 1 p.m. and ended at 4 p.m. Wallace tells The Bancroft Times that the day before, Charlie Mackie and Thom White from Lynval Contracting floated the wagon to the park for the families to enjoy horse-pulled sleigh rides the following afternoon. That night, Wallace, Don Reid, Josh Polmans and Jason Ziebart went over to Foster Lake Rink to prepare the ice for the following day's ice-skating fun.

“Thank you to Marie Aide, Jocelyn Norlock, Kim Stewart and Pat Smith-Strom for the wonderful chili you made. Thank you to Mandy White and Tess Mandy for the chicken noodle soup. It certainly warmed up the children and their parents. Thank you to Julia Kotarba for donating all the hot dogs and buns, they were yummy. The chili dogs were a great hit. Thank you to Debbie Burton, Sue and Dean Whitthun, Colleen Hudson and Lois Hughey for the goodies donated. There were cupcakes, cookies and all kinds of snacks. I think the children really enjoyed picking out their own little goodies from the treat bin,” he says.

Wallace also thanked the Carlow recreation committee for helping with all the festivities, and said that the families enjoyed a day filled with horse-pulled sleigh rides with Charles Mackie and Ronnie Aid, ice skating, roasting marshmallows over an open fire, making snow art with the snow, making colourful snow volcanoes and enjoying the food and all the goodies.

“It was wonderful to see the rink come back to life, especially the laughter and smiles of our families. It filled our hearts. There were over 100 people that attended. The community support was overwhelming,” he says. “This is just the beginning of more family events in our community.”