Perth Children’s Water Festival a Success (UTRCA weekly, June 3, 2022)
The first in-person Perth Children’s Water Festival was a great success with more than 500 people in attendance! The event was held at Stratford’s Falstaff Family Centre on Sunday, May 29. Families were able to participate in several hands-on, educational booths being run by community organizations to learn about the importance of water and its conservation. The City of Stratford had its hydro-vac and fire trucks on site for children to tour.
Community education staff from the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) led a Stream of Dreams activity for interested attendees to paint recycled plastic fish. The 200 newly painted fish will be installed on the fence of the Falstaff Family Centre, along with 50 fish painted by Stratford Middle Years students and staff.
Linda Smith, Water Festival Coordinator, shared that the event exceeded expectations, saying, “We could not be more pleased with how the event went. We had lots of happy families who were very receptive to our message, and our partners had really positive feedback, too.”
Special thanks to the sponsors and contributors who helped make it happen:
- Avon Maitland District School Board
- City of Stratford
- Cook Rees Memorial Fund
- Falstaff Family Centre
- Highthorne Corporation
- Huron Perth Catholic District School Board
- Kings College
- MTE Consultants Inc.
- Ontario Clean Water Agency
- Ontario Federation of Agriculture
- Optimists Club of Stratford
- Perth County Libraries
- RBC Wealth Management Dominion Securities
- Rotary Club of St. Marys
- St. Marys Building Centre
- St. Marys Cement
- Stratford Civic Beautification and Environmental Awareness Committee
- Stratford Perth Museum
- TD Friends of the Environment Foundation
- Thames River Clean Up
- Unifor Local 88 (CAMI)
- Upper Thames River Conservation Authority
- YMCA of Three Rivers – Stratford Perth
The next children’s water festival event is the Oxford Children’s Water Festival on June 11 at Pittock Conservation Area.