Strathmore Children’s Festival returns for fifth year
Adelle Ellis
Times Reporter
The Strathmore Children’s Festival will be coming back for its fifth year, bigger and better than ever.
This year the event will be held at the Strathmore Curling Rink on May 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Organizers expect about 1,300 people to attend the festival this year.
According to organizer Marci Hira, the day will be packed with entertainment, activities, market vendors, contests and plenty of things to do for the whole family. Geared to families and children up to age 12, the event is free, although food and monetary donations will be accepted.
Lunch is available during the event: a Humpty’s exclusive mini menu of food items and beverages for a reasonably discounted price.
Event-goers can bid on silent auction items, purchase raffle tickets, and visit with local entrepreneur market vendors.
For the children, a Disney princess will be in attendance, and there will be special appearances with Chase and Marshall from Paw Patrol. Calgary’s most kid-friendly magician, Christopher Cool, will also be doing two very special magic shows.
There will be a colouring, a hula hoop contest, a cupcake eating contest and a baby crawling contest.
“It’s a day to bring families together,” said Hira. “We live in a busy world with lots of stress and chaos, and I think it’s very important for a family to come together and have fun.”
Several in-kind sponsors will also be donating their time and resources to make the day special for everyone. Sweet Pea Photograph will be taking one free family picture per family as well as pictures with Paw Patrol. Two stylists from Bangles will be creating princess hair for the little girls at the festival. Angela and Sara Hitch will be doing face painting and tattoos on the festival’s littlest attendees.
Hira is working with the Strathmore Fire Department to try to have a fire truck present.
“The focus is to get the community and families to come together for a day that is as free as possible, to raise awareness of local organizations and entrepreneurs, and to raise money to donate back to local organizations,” said Hira.
Any food donations collected at admittance will be donated to the Wheatland County Food Bank. Monetary donations will go to School Fuel and to one other club chosen by the public. Last year both School Fuel and the Strathmore Youth Club each received $450 from the Children’s Festival.
This year’s financial sponsors include Humpty’s Strathmore, Western Financial Group Strathmore and Lion’s Club Strathmore, which donated a combined $3,800 towards the Strathmore Children’s Festival.
“It is all funded through our monetary sponsors,” said Hira. “If it wasn’t for them, this festival wouldn’t be happening.” She added that with table rentals, about $4,200 has already been raised and most of it will be going back towards charities and non-profit organizations in the community.
Hira places high value on philanthropy and giving back. In 2015, she started the Strathmore Community Care Club (SCCC), which is a group with about 130 members that does four or five different activities a year to help the community out, such as: filling Christmas hampers, donating back-to-school supplies to children in need, and a superhero cleanup to clean up Strathmore’s parks and streets. Her goal is to have the Children’s Festival as a project of the SCCC next year.
“I’m just really big on giving back,” said Hira. “I want to make a fun day and give families something to look forward to.”
Hira is looking for volunteers to help with setting up, cleaning up, and running things throughout the day. She is also seeking item donations for the silent auction and raffle prizes. If you would like to volunteer or if your business would like to donate an item to the Strathmore Children’s Festival, e-mail Marci Hira (marcibrianne@gmail.com).