June 26, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
Fort St. John, Festivals & Events
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Just this past Friday I had the pleasure of helping out with the Fort St John Visitor Centre’s “Share the Excitement” event for local school children. The event brought local children out to experience the excitement of the coming Olympic Games.
Children became athletes as they played Olympic inspired games (‘curling’ with beanbags and the house draw onto the sidewalk with chalk, for example) and decorated their own personal gold medals. They met the mascots via a selection of colouring sheets (unfortunately Northern communities do not always have the funds to fly the actual mascots up for events). Lastly the kids learned about all the fantastic things that are entailed in B.C. Tourism as they toured the Visitor Centre and watched the “Share the Excitement” promotional video which shows many of the amazing experiences that British Columbia offers. In the closing ceremonies the children were given “Share the Excitement” flags as keepsakes to remind them that the 2010 Olympics are as much for them as for the hundred of athletes from all around the world.
Local enthusiasm was staggering as teachers snapped up the six spaces that were made available for classes within mere hours and students eagerly cheered ‘Go Canada’ while Visitor Information Counsellor, Samantha Gibeault, explained the day’s significance to them. The day itself was a great success with marvellous weather and over a hundred happy children learning just how exciting Vancouver’s Olympics truly are!
Here in Fort St John, we may be hundreds of miles from the home of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics but the excitement was shared and the children of the North could not be more enthusiastic.
The two classes that were unable to make it were sent goodie bags filled with mascot stickers, Olympic tattoos, flags, magnets, and a “Share the Excitement” decal for the class to share. Any other children who missed the festivities can also stop by the Fort St John Visitor Centre for complimentary flags and stickers!
June 20, 2009 | Tips from Travellers >
Fort St. John, Festivals & Events
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I have never been fond of country music; in fact, I have been known to cry out in abject misery at the twanging strains of a country tune. All that changed at my first barn dance.
Towns with large rural populations like Fort St John are famous for their cowboy hat wearing and merry two-stepping but I had never fully appreciated the charm of folksy northern tradition until I was dragged (kicking and screaming) across the threshold of a local family’s barn for my first ever barn dance. That was almost two years ago and I have yet to regret it.
Fort St. John barn dances are a family affair, from toddlers in frilled dresses to stately two-stepping seniors, everyone is welcome. However, being as they are hosted in a homey, though unheated, barn, they only run once monthly from May to October. I periodically think that I would be willing to brave December’s -40 chill if only to get out dancing.
Just last night I attended a barn dance celebrating this year’s highschool graduates. All ages were present and dress ranged from ballgowns and tuxedos to jean shorts and cowboy hats. It was a marvellous night. We polka’d and two-stepped, even waltzed, and of course danced a few classic folk dances like the butterfly and the schottische.
Anyone who knows how to dance is always willing to teach others and newbies are warmly gathered into the fold. So, next time you are in Fort St. John, I encourage you to get out and meet the locals, if you’re lucky you might even be invited out to come barn dancing with one of the warmest, most charming groups of people that the world has to offer.