Coaldale Community Fest goes Feb. 19

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

The 14th annual Coaldale Community Fest is set to go next week, and promises a family fun-filled day for attendees.

“It’s an opportunity to bring the family together on Family Day, and just provide the community with some fun thing to do throughout the day,” said Clayton Varjassy, Coaldale Community Services Manager.

The day will start off with a pancake breakfast at the Coaldale Community Centre from 8-11 a.m. The breakfast is free to attend, although donations for the Coaldale Food Bank will be accepted.

Craft activities and helium balloons will be available at the Coaldale Mennonite Church from 10 a.m. to noon, and Hay Rides will go from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the HUB field. Activities such as public skating, face painting, crib tournament and free chili or hotdog lunches will also take place throughout the day.

“There’s stuff happening at the community centre, the Coaldale Mennonite church, the HUB and the HUB Field and the arena, and the Coaldale Seniors Centre as well,” said Varjassy. “Just kind of all around town for the most part.”

New activities for Community Fest this year include laser tag, string art, Petland Pet Presentations and Family Loose Parts Activity.

“The Petland Pet Presentation is new, so some reptiles and some chinchillas, rabbits, that’s new this year,” said Varjassy.

“We’re going to turn the Community Centre, after the Pancake breakfast, into a laser tag arena, so we got some black lights and some neon paintings and some laser tag over there.

“The String Art is new this year; we had seed art last year and that was a big hit, so we’re just expanding onto that. The Family Loose Part Activity will be new this year, it’s like building blocks and that.”

“There a few new ideas out there as well, so we’re trying just to encourage more people to come out and just have a wider variety of activities for the family,” said Cindy Hoffman, Manager of Community Services for Coaldale.

“It’s one day a year when the family can get together and do something, so we’re trying to just add a few new ideas and activities so it appeal to more families, so they come out and get together with the rest of the family.”

Varjassy noted that the day would not be possible without the help of organizations such as the Kinsmen and Kinnettes Clubs of Coaldale, Coaldale Food Bank, 3rd Coaldale Scouts, Coaldale Mennonite Church, Coaldale Senior Centre, Early Years Connections and TNT 4-H Multi Club, and businesses such as Coaldale Home Hardware, Coaldale Food Market, Coaldale Nurseries Ltd., Petland, The Ice Hut and VY Fridays.

Ending the day will be a showing of a 90’s film at the Gem of the West Museum. After doing an online survey, A Goofy Movie — an animated musical starring Goofy and his teenaged son Max — was declared the winner by two votes.

Acknowledging that the film won by a slim margin out two votes out of thirty votes total, Varjassy admitted that he was hoping that A Goofy Movie would emerge victorious.

“Internally, we were kind of rooting for A Goofy Movie, so it was pleasant —I mean we’re a little bit surprised, I didn’t think that for sure it would go,” said Varjassy, adding the other choices included The Lion King and Flubber. “It was pretty tight for sure.”