Glenora celebrates winter as a community

By Erin Cripps-Woods

GLENORA – The Glenora community came together on the Family Day long weekend to celebrate with family and friends with the annual Winter Festival and Heritage Classic day.

Festivities started in the afternoon on Feb.19 at the Glenora Community League Hall located on 10426 136 St. Volunteer Michelle Hildebrand said she wants to help bring the community together.

“I think knowing your neighbours and belonging to a community is very important.”

CTV personality and Glenora resident, Graham Neil, pointed out these kinds of events also help make the community safer. “It’s the whole idea of looking out for each other,” he said.

Hildebrand had an army of helpers for all the various activities: face painting, three-on-three hockey, hay rides, skating, a chili cook-off, Scrabble, snowshoeing, cooking s’mores and bannock over campfires, playing games in the playground and one huge dance party outside with a DJ.

This is one of the events that a lot of people come out to annually so that they can have fun and catch up with friends. About 150-200 people came to this event throughout the day.

“It’s a community within a community,” said Phil McRae.

McRae came out with his family and said it’s so great to know everyone and see so many people come out to annual events like the Winter Festival and Heritage Classic.

The family favourite of the day was face painting inside the hall. Two talented ladies spent most of the day painting lion, tigers and bunnies. The odd request came in for Spider Man or a pretty unicorn. Children begged their parents to wait in the long line so that they could run around with painted faces to show off to their friends.

While waiting in line or sitting down for a rest in the community hall, people could look to one wall and see pictures of last year’s festival. The memories made were pasted up collage-style.

Edmonton-Glenora MLA Heather Klimchuk came out to not only judge the chili competition, but also to enjoy the activities along with everyone else. Glenora is where her children were raised and she said attending these events is like coming home for her.

“This is a magical community where we keep connections,” said Klimchuk.

On another wall, sponsors and a large Thank-You banner were on display. The sponsors for this year’s Winter Festival and Heritage Classic were: Flesky Flynn LLP, Ernest & Young, Servus Credit Union, Kegs and More Liquor Store, Glenora Liquor Store, Original Joes, Top of the Mountain Beef, Tage Cawley BBA, Realtor Wade Klimchuk, Melnyk Wealth Management Group and Canacord Wealth Management.

During the chili cook-off, the hall was full of people waiting to try the six different pots of chili in the running. Neil, Klimchuk and Olympic figure skater, David Pelletier, got to choose the top chili based on taste.

Community member and Boom Town sound DJ Kevin Ashmore has been the music source for the festival for about three years now.

“[It is] super-fantastic to see the increase of people coming out and enjoying what Glenora community has to offer even with the cold weather,” he said.

The Heritage Classic part of the day was one of the last events to take place. Both hockey teams played wearing jerseys sporting the name Glenora Leafs, one team sported a white jersey, while the other team wore a royal blue jersey. The teams played hard, but fair, and in the end the score didn’t matter. After the game a huge team photo of blue and white mashed up together was taken and everyone shook hands.

To end the Winter Festival with a bang, fireworks were set off with vocal artist Katy Perry’s song Firework playing loud from the speakers of Ashmore’s DJ booth set up in his van. The crowd cheered as bursts of red, blue, green and white lit up the night sky over Glenora.

La Perle community league also celebrated the long weekend by having a Family Day Frolic on Feb. 20.

Upcoming events in the Glenora community include a meeting for the men of Glenora happening on March 15 at 9 p.m. at Original Joe’s, 12520 102 Ave.

crippswoodse@mymail.macewan.ca