LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
Norman Wells residents welcomed spring back to the community with the annual Spring Fling the weekend of April 5.
Natalie, Hannah, Vincent and Lisa Pelchat proudly display the turtle they created during the children's snow sculpture competition. Norman Wells celebrated the change of seasons with its annual Spring Fling event the weekend of April 5. - photo courtesy of Catarina Owen |
Recreation programmer Myles Erb said the Spring Fling featured a variety of events, including a pancake breakfast, a scavenger hunt and a snowmobile rally.
It also included traditional and Northern games, such as log push and stick pull games.
"The best part about the event is getting everybody out and active," he said. "The traditional games are so much fun."
Some modifications were made to some of the events, such as replacing the tea boiling contest with an egg boiling contest, but Erb said no one seemed to mind.
"We made teams to see who could cook a hardboiled egg the fastest," he said. "They were happy because they got to eat it after. It was a big hit."
Another event was resurrected after a long absence.
Erb, who was raised in Norman Wells, said he remembered an ice golf course at the community's skating rink during the Spring Fling's of his childhood.
This year, he and fellow organizers decided to revive the sport and transform the community's skating rink into a golf course.
Pathways were created using snow and the arena's ice resurfacer.
"It took a lot of time," Erb said.
Snow outdoors was also put to good use with a family snow-sculpting contest.
"We told the kids to make sculptures," Erb said. "We had a sea turtle, a narwhal and we had one really funky one that was supposed to be a T-rex."
A community feast was another popular activity, thanks to the moose, caribou and trout
donated by local hunters.
Erb said elders particularly enjoyed the feast, as well as watching the traditional games. This year, staff constructed a wall tent to help protect elders and community members from the -30 C weather.
"We had a wall tent set up with a wood stove," Erb said. "I heard lots of comments about how nice that was. It was nice and warm in there."
The festival also included a fundraiser for the Northwest Company's Team Diabetes, which aims to participate in the Cayman Island Marathon in December. The marathon raises money for the Canadian Diabetes Association.
Team members Amanda Feltham, Dee Opperman, Sheena Bailey and Sam Hickling organized a Couch Potato Olympics at the Royal Canadian Legion, which was comprised of about nine different games.
One of the games, called Face the Cookie, had participants move a cookie from their foreheads to their mouths using only their facial muscles. Another game had participants use a single string to attach all team members together, called Threading the Needle.
Feltham said about eight teams took part in the games.
"It was a great success, everyone had fun," she said. "We have lot of support for Team Diabetes."
Nighttime events were just as popular as the daytime ones, Erb said. A dance was held at the recreation centre on Saturday night from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. featuring Yellowknife band, Hindsight.
"Everybody enjoyed that," Erb said.
Erb said he hopes to repeat many of the events at next year's Fling, such as the egg boiling contest and traditional games.
He said it is always a much-anticipated festival.
"You always hear people asking, 'when is the Spring Fling?'" he said. "People love it."
