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June 20, 2024 • Volume 39, No. 3
Next edition July 4
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Petrie Island event moves to Millennium Park
Millennium Park will be the site of the Ohhh Canada Kids Festival on July 1. The event will replace the Canada Day festivities that used to take place on Petrie Island. FILE PHOTO
By Jody Maffett The Orléans Star There will be no Canada Day celebration on Petrie Island this year. Instead, the event’s organizers have decided to hold a Canada Day children’s festival at Millennium Park, complete with kids’ entertainers, children’s activities and a giant birthday cake. Kiwanis Eastern Ottawa made the decision to switch venues for several reasons. The main two reasons were logistics and cost. Holding a large event like the Canada Day celebration comes with a number of challenges, not the least of which is having to provide your own services including a generator for electricity, portable lighting and water hook up – all of which cost money Just the need to provide portable lighting for the causeway once the fireworks as over costs close to $1,500. And as the costs of holding the event on Petrie
Island have risen over the years, the job of raising the money to cover those costs has increasingly become more difficult. Moving the event to Millennium Park allows the Kiwanis Club to focus on the main purpose of holding an event on Canada Day, which is providing activities for kids and families, while keeping things simple within a realistic budget. “Our mandate is to do stuff for kids by creating youth-oriented programming and community activities,” says Kiwanis Eastern Ottawa spokesperson Adam Polka. “Here we still have an event that highlights that.” Tho Ohhh Canada Kids Festival will include an obstacle course, face painting, a fishing pond, scavenger hunt, craft area, chalk art, fun games field activities and much more. There will also be a bike rally where kids can show off their decorated bikes. Best of all everything is free. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2