Kids tube down a hill (editorial purposes only).
STEPHENVILLE — Stephenville Winter Carnival is moving forward as planned, from Feb. 25 to Mar. 1. While events were cancelled in other municipalities in 2021, Stephenville held its Christmas Adventure on Main Street and have no plans to slow down now.
Mayor Tom Rose said they will follow all necessary regulations to ensure people are safe and have fun.
“There’s measures in place and we follow the COVID guidelines, but the winter carnival – the plans and activities – is going to be an outdoor event, which allows us to be able to have social distancing and to follow the guidelines. If anything, the community still needs a little bit of events because it supports the community and helps with everybody’s mental health, so we’ve gotta have them.”
Rose said if provincial measures change, it may have to be reassessed, but as it stands the carnival is going ahead.
“We have a very competent staff within our recreation department and within our staff at the town. We get all our communications from the Department of Health for municipalities and what we can and cannot do, so all we’re doing is following the rules and regulations,” said Rose. “Sometimes it’s easy to just shut everything down, but there’s parts of our society that have to move forward, keep going forward.”
The theme of this winter carnival is ‘Love.’ Homes and businesses are encouraged to get creative and decorate. Councillor Tracy Boland says it is all about everyone exhibiting love for their town and each other.
“We are really hoping people will build heart ice sculptures and have hearts in their house windows, in their car windows and have them or their dogs wearing hearts. We will have contests for kids like ‘The Best Poem About Why They Love Their Town’. The committee are still currently working on activities which we will post soon. We want the best decorated home to the best decorated business and many other little fun things that show we love and support each other.”
Boland said the option to cancel the winter carnival given the rise in cases since the new year wasn’t something that even came up.
“We need to have winter carnival in a safe way, and so we decided to think outside the box to make it happen. The people of our community need something to look forward to in these dark times, so we decided to come up with a safe way to have winter carnival. Everything we are doing consists of social distancing and outdoor events, unless something drastically changes. We will also have a back-up plan. We will always put safety in mind first.”
Registration forms are available now on the Town of Stephenville website to register your home, business, or ice sculpture for a chance to be featured in the carnival video and be entered to win a prize.
Boland said businesses have not been contacted, but they plan to in the very near future.
“I’m sure kids and seniors and adults all want to see love and support by everyone in our town. Something positive in a very dark time! We could all have a bit of love in our life.”
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