GUELPH – The Waterloo Wellington Children’s Groundwater Festival returned to an in-person format June 6 to 9 at the Guelph Lake Conservation Area.
After three years of being online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers and organizers were excited to be back for the 27th in-person festival.
Children in grades 2 to 5 from the city of Guelph, Waterloo Region and Wellington County had the opportunity to rotate around 50 different activities at the conservation area.
Participants were encouraged to learn more about measuring groundwater and understanding water tables, the connection between groundwater and water conservation, and several other topics.
One of the big attractions, say volunteers, was the topic of well construction. This activity was demonstrated by Aardvark Drilling, and the kids were quite drawn to the company’s large equipment.
In order to accommodate those who could not make it to the festival this year – between 3,000 and 4,000 students remained on the waitlist – organizers were planning a virtual festival this week on YouTube, including live moderation to go along with the recording.
Children who attended the Waterloo Wellington Children’s Groundwater Festival were seen smiling while being taught about groundwater-related topics. Photos by Nicole Beswitherick
With an average of 1,000 to 1,200 students attending each day, the festival is always in need of volunteers.
“We normally do have high school volunteers, today unfortunately being so close to exams, those volunteers weren’t able to help us,” said co-chair Kyle Davis on June 9, the final day of the festival.
Since high school volunteers were unavailable, officials were lucky to have municipal and private sector volunteers join them on the last day instead.
For years the groundwater festival has had help from high schools to run the event, and Norwell District Secondary School’s Community Environmental Leadership Program has been a tremendous help over the years as well.
In addition to volunteers, the festival had about eight partner organizations helping out this year, according to Davis, including Wellington County, Guelph, Waterloo, Grand River Conservation Authority and universities in the area.
“We had people step up this year, and we hope they have a great experience and come back next year,” said Davis.
“But we are always looking for more volunteers.”
