Kelly Acheson, one of the main organizers for Winter Carnival, was really pleased with the way the weekend turned out and she shared her highlights with us.
“It was crazy busy all weekend, what a huge team effort” she said. “It was awesome.”
“It was 100 strong that pulled it off,” she continued. “I want to thank my board of directors and all the volunteers. We’ve got our event organizers and they just do their thing, they just run with it.”
Besides Acheson, the board includes Caroline Rousselle, Anna Caron, Marlene Streif, Sarah Dixon, Tara Kowalchuk, Larry Doelle, Richard Reid, Don DeLong.
“They did everything that needed to be done,” Acheson said.
She also thanked the event’s four “major majors,” the City of Rossland, the Nelson and District Credit Union, Red Mountain, and Crossline Films, but also Doctors with Warm Hearts, Teck, Columbia Power, Columbia Basin Trust, Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, The South Kootenay Business Centre, Castlegar Hyundai, Fortis BC, and many others.
“It’s a great community event,” she said, thanking all these sponsors and others for “everything from cash, to flat bed trucks, to prize donations.”
“The bobsled’s always a highlight,” Acheson continued.
“We thought we’d be down in registration [because Rick Mercer wasn’t here], but we weren’t. And the race went without incident.”
“The Slocan ice sculptures are a monstrous favourite. You can just feel the weekend kicking into mode that Thursday,” she said, when the Canadian Snow Sculpture team arrives and begins to build the beer garden and the ice slide outside the library.
“These guys are world famous and we are so lucky to have them here. They’re somewhere different every weekend,” she said about the Kootenay artists who have worked together on sand and ice since 1992, offer workshops, and attend festivals all over the map — visit www.snowsculpture.com.
“This year they embedded lights into the bar. Everybody stops and checks them out. We’ve already booked them for next year,” Acheson said.
“Then there’s the rail jam, it speaks for itself,” she continued.
“It’s too bizarre that they would transplant a ski hill onto a downtown street. And there are really good riders! Pete Gearin [the organizer], he’s awesome. I saw him on the street and he’s already talking about next year.”
Acheson was really fired up to be paired with the Blizzard Fest, especially since “we were an official outdoor music venue for the fest, with wicked DJs. We’re going to do it up again next year, bigger and better.”
She wanted to give a special thanks to the Kootenay SnoGoers. “They gave snowmobile rides to kids all afternoon at the kids carnival at the Lion’s campground.”
And there was so much more, from King of the Mountain and Learn to Luge, to the relay race, the kids’ art exhibition, snow golf, snow volleyball, not to mention the parade and all the food and drink.
“There’s just nothing about the weekend that’s not involved with the outdoors, the mountains, the snow,” Acheson said. “I just loved it, every minute of it.”