The Saskatchewan Boreal Forest Learning Centre (now known as Wild Sky Adventure Learning) was proud to offer indoor and outdoor activities at the 4th annual Fire & Ice Winter Festival at Ness Creek on March 2nd. The weather wasn’t favourable – it was -25 with a windchill, but nevertheless, both our indoor & outdoor activities had great engagement from festival goers. Indoors – we had a simple pinecone bird feeder craft that was a messy, oh-so-fun, and great all-ages craft. Kids then went to hang the birdfeeders around the site, particularly by our wildlife & bird viewing blind. This activity connected kids to the winter bird species of the forest. Participants of all ages also completed over 2 dozen twig & paper lanterns using tissue paper, willow, and glue! They were safely illuminated with re-usable candles and this crafting cumulated in an all-ages lantern parade around the site after dusk, with over 40 people singing “this little light of mine” while proudly displaying their lanterns.
Outdoors, we had an incredible volunteer contribution by Karl Mehler who built a big snow castle with a tower room, tunnels, and even a slide! It was a major hit! Our Quinzee was just off one of the ski trails, and was also a wonderful warm up & learning stop in for people coming in off of the trails, where they could roast an apple snack on the fire & learn about this form of shelter.
The project overall was very successful and we had an absolute blast! We plan on continuing this partnership with the Fire & Ice Festival in future years, with ideas from this past festival on how to improve programming to further enhance engagement with project participants..
