A community party is planned to celebrate Canada Day in Williams Lake at Boitanio Park from 2 to 5 p.m.
City staff have been busy organizing the event, including Pepper Silvester, the child and youth programmer for the city.
DJ In A Chord Music will be providing music throughout the event and there will be opening and welcoming remarks and official speeches from Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, MP Todd Doherty and Williams Lake First Nation Chief Willie Sellars.
Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson will attend but later as he is going to other celebrations in the riding.
Setting the mood, the Williams Lake Community Band will perform ‘O Canada’ with a March on the Colours led by the Colour Party and Legion members.
The band will also play a 45 to 60-minute set.
Lots of activities are planned for children, Silvester said.
There will be face painting, a giant slip ‘n’ slide, crafts and games, interactive booths including the Williams Lake Fire Department and free Canada-themed giveaways. Food, treats and refreshment vendors will also be on site, offering a variety of local options.
A few non-profit groups will be on site as well.
We asked Silvester about what Canada Day means to her and her answer was one many of us probably share.
“It’s a time to celebrated being a Canadian. We tend to, unlike our neighbours south, not put a huge emphasis on how proud we are of our country and what we’ve been able to accomplish. It is that one day in the year when Canadians actually do really celebrate who we are and what we’ve got as far as multiculturalism and the work that we’ve been doing with reconciliation and such. I think it’s a really great time for us to celebrate what we’ve accomplished and look forward to all the things we still have to do.”
Growing up in Williams Lake she attended Canada Day celebrations with her family, but being in Kamloops in her early 20s she saw fireworks on Canada Day for the first time, a memory which still sticks out today.
“That was the first time I’d seen that because here in Williams Lake we always did our fireworks at Halloween. It was something completely different,” she said. “I think we are smart doing ours in October because of wildfires.”
