UTRCA hosts London-Middlesex Children’s Water Festival
This May, the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) hosted the London-Middlesex Children’s Water Festival. Over the four days of the festival, students in grades two through five came to Fanshawe Conservation Area for a fun and educational field trip to learn about the importance of water in their daily lives.
This year, we had record registration, with requests for over 11,000 students to attend the festival! Because of this enthusiastic response, we were able to accept more students than we ever have, welcoming 1,000 a day with 4,069 students over the entire festival. The festival relies on volunteer support from the community and, with record numbers of students in attendance, we had 200 volunteers on each day of the festival! We were very fortunate to have students from the Thames Valley District School Boards’s grade 10 H3ELP program volunteering each day of the festival.
This year, students were able to choose from 54 different activity stations, all based on one (or more!) of five themes: Water Attitude, Conservation, Science, Protection, and Technology. Activities ranged in content, from learning about water flow in bathroom fixtures to aquatic creatures in our watershed to how water is used around the world.
On Thursday, May 11, we extended the invitation to the public, hosting a free family night at the Water Festival. Over 3,800 people were in attendance participating in activities such as water festival stations, canoeing, wetland origami, boat painting, community art, story walk, drumming, seed planting, bird feeder building, book readings, Police marine unit vehicle displays, live reptile and birds of prey shows, face painting and more!
The Children’s Water Festivals are fully fundraised each year and rely on both generous volunteer and financial support from the community. Thank you to all our volunteers and sponsors for helping ensure the 2023 festival was a success!
Great Lake Sponsors
City of London, London District Catholic School Board, Thames Valley District School Board, and Upper Thames River Conservation Area.
Watershed Sponsors
Drumbo Tent Company Limited, Lake Huron and Elgin Area Primary Water Supply System, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., Oxford Children’s Water Festival, and TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.
River Sponsors
GM Cami Assembly, Huron Tractor, Kettle Creek Conservation Authority, LMac Community CPR, London Children’s Museum, Marshall’s Pasta Mill, Middlesex-London Health Unit, Ontario Clean Water Agency, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Oxford Coalition for Social Justice, Unifor Local 88, and YMCA of Southwestern Ontario.
For more information about the Children’s Water Festival, visit the website or contact Linda Smith, Community Partnership Specialist and Water Festival Coordinator.