July 21 – August 3rd
What a whirl wind! It has a been a busy couple of weeks at the park.
A couple reminders:
- SUNFLOWER SEED shells are litter, the salty, greasy shells attract wildlife including bears and mice they are also sharp when walked on with bare feet. Please use a container for your shells. Ask at either store if you would like an empty cup to collect your shells.
- PADDLE BOARDS are considered a watercraft and there must be a lifejacket onboard for all passengers. During busy hours we recommend sticking to the shoreline around the perimeter and watch out for each other out there! Remember to keep your eye on the sun, once she starts setting it gets dark fast.
- LITTER is a community issue, if you walk past some garbage, take a moment to pick it up. We always have little eyes watching our actions so when kids see us pick up liter, they learn to do it too and the park stays tidy for all!
- We are so glad you use the park and all of its resources! We hope you feel welcome and please feel free to drop us an email or a suggestion in our suggestion box (located at the main store). Maybe there is an area that needs attention that we are missing!?!
Highlights from the past two weeks include:
- Week One of swimming lessons was cool and cloudy, as is to be expected. This builds character I am told. The kids had a great time and our instructors loved having a very special assistant teacher! Thank you to Alexis!
- Our second set of beach stairs were completed, making access up and down our beach drop off much easier for all ages! Thank you Earl for doing such great work!
- Our canoe rack has been getting lots of use at the boat launch! Remember to take your boats off the rack when you are leaving the park for a few days so others can use the handy waterfront storage.
- We did a lot to get ready for EmFest including putting out more garbage and recycling, putting up the tent at the volley ball, weeding the sand and rototilling at the volley ball, painting picnic tables, gathering supplies and volunteers!
- We were a bit short on volunteers this year and had many wonderful people step up to fill in on the weekend. Thank you to all of them! This event could not happen without out volunteers!!
o Please consider volunteering for next year’s EmFest! We are always on the lookout for someone to spearhead each of the events that happen over the weekend. Is there an event missing that you would like to add? Or one that didn’t happen this year that you missed? Volunteer to organize it next year! Or better yet – be the volunteer coordinator! This position makes sure we have someone to organize each event, and checks in with them to make sure they have everything they need to make their event a success. Does this sound like you? Email manager@emeraldlake.org
- EMFEST!
What a fabulous weekend and we couldn’t have had better weather! First of all a huge shout out to the staff, the board and the volunteers for making this event possible. They all worked above and beyond the call of duty to make sure fun was had by everyone!
§ Our golf cart parade had three prize winners:
· Pirates – First Place
· Ozzy Ozborn – Runner Up
· Mini Orcas – Emerald Spirt Award
· Thank you to Kevin and Christine for leading!
§ Volley Ball Tournament also had three winners
· First Place: Bumpin’ Beaches
· Runner Up: Ruxi Raiders
· Emerald Spirit: I’d Hit That
· Thank you to Andrea and Family for organizing!
§ Kids Pickle Ball
· First Place: Thayne & Dylan
· Runner Up: Trey & Thomas
· Thank you to Nicole for organizing both Pickleball tournaments
§ Dorothy Lynne Memorial Adult Pickle Ball
· First Place: Sean & Brian
· Runner Up: Cody & Lindsay
· Emerald Spirit: Carey & Christy
· Thank you to Dave for cooking hot dogs!
§ Golf Tournament:
· First Place: Branden & Lauren
· Runner Up: Darcy & Jackson
· Most Honest Score: Jesse & Simon
· Best Emerald Spirit: Terry & Paul
· Thank you to Emily for organizing
§ 50/50 draw was won by Kevin S.
§ Bingo had lots of winners and so did kids games and watermelon eating contest! Thank you to Mark and Jody for organizing!
§ The Mrs.Roper’s pancake breakfast was a hit with even more bright colours attending than last year! Remember to pack your muumuus for next year (imagine a beach full of muumuus! How much fun would that be!). Thank you to our stellar volunteers: Barb, Trevor, Monte, Deanna, Daryl, Laurel, and PETRA who worked so hard in the kitchen!
§ The silent auction had so many amazing donations this year! Thank you to everyone who donated, asked, organized and made it all happen!
§ We ended up canceling the fireworks due to the dry conditions and the risk of fire being high. Thank you for your understanding.
§ With all of the events and the silent auction we raised $3500 for our new accessible shower and beach store upgrades! Thank you so much and watch for those updates soon!
o This was the busiest weekend of the summer so far and we went through roughly 330liters of ice cream and many of our food items as well. We enjoyed a special treat of Pineapple Dolewhip in our soft serve machine Friday and Saturday. We also had two specials for the weekend that were so popular we will continue them until further notice:
§ Fish n chips $10
§ Chicken nuggets n fries $8
The good weather and celebration atmosphere had the park hopping all weekend. Thank you for your continued support and patronage!
This next week should continue to be busy with our second week of swimming lessons having lots of swimmers enrolled! On Friday there will be a regular lesson in the morning with fun things planned in the afternoon. We will have taught 153 swimmers over these two weeks! Amazing work out there team!
We have more projects coming up that we are preparing for:
- Adding a treatment to the diving platform
- Our shower conversion of the beach change room
- Our new fridge for the beach store
- Two new outhouses to be the final replacements of outhouses for this update (we have already completed 3 and updated the flooring in the beach store bathrooms).
Thanks for the fun!
Crispi