There’s no business like snow business as Minto prepares itself for its 10th anniversary.
Deputy-Mayor Judy Dirksen recently brought councillors up to date on plans for Minto’s 10th anniversary.
She said the committee has had a couple of meetings, with another set for January.
“We’ve chosen Sunday, Feb. 15 as the day. As you may know Feb. 16 is Family Day, which is now a holiday on our calendars in February.”
She said a number of different events have been planned, and she hopes they will run in all three urban communities.
“We’d like to finish off the evening with one bonfire, currently planned at the Harriston community centre.”
She said the committee has considered ideas such as a log sawing contest, plank walks, cross country skiing and snowshoeing, a plunger toss – not necessarily with toilets – possibly tires.
The location of the events, “has not been set in snow.”
Also planned is a snow sculpture competition in connection with local schools.
One of the ideas or themes is to create snow families on the front lawns of homes.
Dirksen said she thought it would be entertaining to visitors driving through town if everyone had as many snow people as possible along the streets.
As part of the judging, participants would take photos of the families and provide contact information on the back of the print.
She said there is no guarantee of perfect snow building weather in February, so she suggested participants start early. The details are not final yet. The photos would be used in collages at the various community centres.
She quipped the date for submissions, “is carved in snow.”
Dirksen did say that in the case of poor weather the event would simply be cancelled, instead of having people driving on poor roads.
She added that moving the date to another weekend simply conflicted with too many other events in the region. She said the thought is that the town could have other 10th anniversary events, or connect existing events with the towns’ anniversary.
She hopes that the Norgan Theatre in Palmerston will hold a family show on the evening of the winter event.
As for the bonfire, she hopes that organizers will be able to provide chili, hot dogs, and hot chocolate.
She said that gives a bird’s eye view of what’s going on.
Councillor Tammy Reiner said the idea is to reach out to students – to give them time between now and February to find the best date for packing snow.
“Because the weather is unpredictable and it could rain and the snow family could melt before their eyes, we’re asking them to take a picture.”
Reiner said she is working to have the children be able to drop off the photos at local schools or the town office.
“If they take a picture of their snow family and write their name, address and phone number on the back before Feb. 10, we can have some kind of judging.”
She said there could be different themes such as the most active family, best dressed, who has the most snowmen on the yard.
“We’ll try to make it fun and have some prizes for the families.”
