It was, arguably, a case of twice the fun as the Hamlet of Baker Lake held Family Fun Day 2 More Fun on May 5.
The hamlet held its inaugural Family Fun Day this past February.
Hamlet wellness co-ordinator Karen Yip said the recent event ran from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. and went really well.
She said Family Fun Day 2 More Fun was well-attended, even though there were other things going on in the community, and gave a rough estimate of between 250 and 350 kids attending the event.
“The most popular attraction were the two bouncy obstacle courses,” said Yip. “It was, kind of, a long adventure for them, where you went through one and then you go through the other while racing against somebody else, so they really enjoyed that one.
“They also enjoyed the target practice with fancy Nerf guns and targets for them to shoot at. I thought that game was appropriate. Kids need to develop their shooting skills because it’s an important skill to learn in the North.
“We do bigger versions of this for Festival by the Lake, so this was, kind of, a scaled down personal event. It featured only the carnival games and prizes, and focused on the kids specifically.
“It was a lot of fun. We had all kinds of games. I developed a fish pond game that was used, and we had Frisbee throwing, basketball tossing into the nets, magnetic darts, and balls and Velcro for the little kids.”
She said the hamlet received great support from the Northern store and the Co-op for the event.
“We had tons of things to give away to the kids and I’m sure they all went away happy. We had a parting gift for every kid.
“We also had plenty of hot dogs, cookies and juice.”
Yip said one of the nice things she noticed while stationed at the prize table was that kids were willingly choosing not only the toys, but actually making things like water bottles or socks their first choice.
She said it was really nice to see kids choosing practical items like that.
“I was really happy that they could recognize the need for things of importance. They were important to them because they didn’t have socks, they didn’t have enough socks, or they wanted more socks.
“I was really pleased that kids had that kind of foresight, to select something that wasn’t just for immediate gratification, but, actually, was something more practical with more lasting value.
“We were really pleased with how it went and I really think the kids had a lot of fun. We fed lots of people with our hot dogs, juice and cookies. And, it wasn’t only kids. It was other people in the community who maybe don’t get enough to eat. Whatever the reason, we fed lots of people.
“I’d like to do one next for special needs kids. We have lots of games. All we need are volunteers. For this recent one, I had planned on 10 people helping, but I think we did it with half that many, including me. Hopefully, we’ll have a better turnout of people to help next time.”