Where can you have an Unbelievable amount of fun? At our annual Winter Carnival, that's where! From the mouths of the young and those young at heart who attended the Winter Carnival, come these words to describe this year's most successful Carnival ever:

The Hay Ride was still popular even in the cold temps. Stouffville Winter Carnival 2012.
Photo - Kate Gilderdale

Kaija’s face is aglow with a colourful butterfly. Stouffville Winter Carnival 2012.
Photo - Dan Wigmore

Five year old Kaija, her face aglow with blues, yellows and pinks, enthused about the Carnival, her first. She “liked the hot dog best.” Kaija was also delighted “by all the stuff on stage and the people!” She gave a special thumbs up to Doo Doo the Clown.

9 years old Max stated, “ I liked the skating best, how we skated on our boots.” Next Max, who attended with her father Bruce, accompanied by 8 year old Jenna and Jenna’s Mom, Krys, admired the “Stage show, with Doo Doo the Clown. He was really funny, because he pulled up his green bottom and there was a bunch of flowers!”

Town Staff made sure the rink was flawless for all to enjoy. Stouffville Winter Carnival 2012.
Photo - Kate Gilderdale

Jenna agreed Doo Doo was a big hit, “very friendly and funny.” Jenna also enjoyed “that we would win stuff. I got a Wiggly Movie and Max got a Barney movie.”

Bruce who confessed he is a fan of small town autumn fairs, suggested the “outdoor rinks were a thrill, especially with the music. That part was great.” He and Krys were bowled over by the local dance troupe, York Dance Academy. The quality of all the local acts on stage impressed both Bruce and Krys, as being “better than only local talent,” and “something much more like professionals.”

Doo Doo The Clown was UnBelievable along with Most Excellent Productions. Stouffville Winter Carnival 2012. Photo - Kate Gilderdale

Maria, a first time Carnival attendee observed “The Carnival is really good for people new to Stouffville, so they might learn about the Museum, Charlinda’s Fine Chocolates, the Library, the Tennis Club and all the other amenities, services and clubs Stouffville area has to offer. The Police Kit, “ Maria continued, “was a particularly good thing, with child find and finger printing...oh, and the Give-Aways!” Maria exclaimed. “There were so many Give Aways, colouring books, crayons, balloons, on and on...” Maria focussed on the Police colouring book,” It has symbols like a Stop sign so the children can learn what the signs mean as they colour.”

Maria also pointed out that the Library demonstration by Catherine Sword was very useful, teaching them, as it did, how to access the Library’s abundant collection from home. The Library demo was a new addition this year to the Carnival and was a great draw! We look forward to the Library presentations in years to come.

Catherine Sword was very busy with an exciting library demo. Stouffville Winter Carnival 2012.
Photo - Kate Gilderdale

Ms. Sword herself commented on the spectacular face paintings emerging from the very busy face painting table. A neat fox, a vampire, and was that a dragon walking by? “ After all it is,” Catherine observed, “the year of the dragon.”

Councillor Phil Bannon with Doo Doo The Clown and some of the many, many young carnival goers that were having a whole lot of fun at the ever popular Annual Stouffville Winter Carnival.
Photo – Most Excellent Productions

The conga line, headed by none other than Doo Doo the Clown helped to wrap up an extremely exciting, busy day. Who knew the string of kids in the conga line might be that long?

“And hey!” Catherine continued, “There was Phil Bannon in a bright red coat waving and bobbing a bright purple balloon.”

Krys summed it up with “It’s romantic, small town romantic.”

We are delighted to offer this sampling of words from those who attended the Carnival and to acknowledge the outstanding support from so many of our wonderful sponsors:

9th Annual Stouffville Winter Carnival Sponsors
Cedar Beach and the Davies/Jenkin Family
Charlinda Belgian Chocolates
Clarkson Auctions & Movers
Country Style
ExpoSystems Canada
Fieldgate Homes
Gibson Printing Co. Ltd.
Gottardo Construction
Lafarge
Lee Sand & Gravel
Musselman’s Lake Residents Association
Ravenshoe Group
Rice Commercial Group
Savoia Developments
Stouffville Sun-Tribune
Tim Hortons
Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville
United Soils Management Limited

With all group activities, a great amount is accomplished by a relative few. To those few, namely, Rick and Linda Wigmore, Lisa White, Jane Grinnell, Mike Feld, Dan Wigmore, Mike Murphy, Kevin Wigmore, Lucie Clairmont, Andrew Dickson and Kelly Missen, led by our inspirational Councillor Phil Bannon we offer our heartfelt thanks and kudos for a job well done!

Councillor Phil Bannon with Doo Doo The Clown and some of the many, many young carnival
goers that were having a whole lot of fun at the ever popular Annual Stouffville Winter Carnival.
Photo – Most Excellent Productions

Even though temperatures were in the -15 degree Celsius range that did not deter people from coming out to the ever popular Annual Stouffville Winter Carnival.

Charlene Jones will have the complete Winter Carnival story later this week. Please send us any Winter Carnival Photos that you wish to share with everyone to us at mlra@musselmanslake.ca. We will show these on our MLRA Winter Carnival Slide Show which will be available next week. Face Paint Photos will be available the week following that and there will also be a Winter Carnival video with the link available on the MLRA website that will include some of the slide show photos in a few weeks.

Please check back to our website often and watch for…

The Winter Carnival article by Charlene Jones will be later this week.

Photo Slide show will be available next week.

Face Paint Photos will be available the following week

A video to follow after that.

Please send us any of your photos that you wish to share with everyone as part of the Winter Carnival Photo Slide Show. You may include a short caption.

• Water depth and size of body of water.
• Currents, tides and other moving water.
• Chemicals including salt.
• Fluctuations in water levels.
• Logs, rocks and docks absorbing heat from the sun.
• Changing air temperature.
• Shock waves from vehicles traveling on the ice.

• Clear blue ice is strongest.
• White opaque or snow ice is half as strong as blue ice. Opaque ice is formed by wet snow freezing on the ice.
• Grey ice is unsafe. The grayness indicates the presence of water.

• 15 cm for walking or skating alone
• 20 cm for skating parties or games
• 25 cm for snowmobiles.

• Call for help.
• Resist the immediate urge to climb back out where you fell in. The ice is weak in this area.
• Use the air trapped in your clothing to get into a floating position on your stomach.
• Reach forward onto the broken ice without pushing down. Kick your legs to push your torso on the ice.
• When you are back on the ice, crawl on your stomach or roll away from the open area with your arms and legs spread out as far as possible to evenly distribute your body weight. Do not stand up! Look for shore and make sure you are going in the right direction.

• Rescuing another person from ice can be dangerous. The safest way to perform a rescue is from shore.
• Call for help. Consider whether you can quickly get help from trained professionals (police, fire fighters or ambulance) or bystanders.
• Check if you can reach the person using a long pole or branch from shore – if so, lie down and extend the pole to the person.
• If you go onto ice, wear a PFD and carry a long pole or branch to test the ice in front of you. Bring something to reach or throw to the person (e.g. pole, weighted rope, line or tree branch).
• When near the break, lie down to distribute your weight and slowly crawl toward the hole.
• Remaining low, extend or throw your emergency rescue device (pole, rope, line or branch) to the person.
• Have the person kick while you pull them out.
• Move the person to a safe position on shore or where you are sure the ice is thick. Signal for help.