THE FIRST BC Family Day activities at the Sportsplex were so successful at one point there were too many people in the pool.
“The pool was at capacity – 286 – for the entire three hours so as two would leave, two more were coming in and we had to turn lots of people away,” said leisure services director Carmen Didier.
“We had exceeded anything we thought about how it was going to be received. I’ve worked here five years and I’ve never seen the pool at capacity like it was that day and a lineup out the door.”
At one point, 75 people were skating for free and that number of people were on the ice for the three hours of the event, making for about 400 total. The other rink provided ice time for various groups.
More than 500 people made arts and crafts upstairs, said Didier.
“They stopped counting about an hour and 15 minutes before it ended, they were just so busy and the pool had well over 480 people sign in,” said Didier.
“I think it was probably well over 500 people in attendance.”
The event, put on by the city and the Terrace and District Arts Council could include more activities next year.
Those activities haven’t been sorted out yet but Didier says if they’d known the weather was going to be so nice for this first family day, they maybe would’ve done a family walk or geocaching.
Admission was an item for the food bank and the city collected about eight or nine boxes of food items, said Didier.
About $4,000 from a ministry of sports and cultural development grant paid for the six lifeguards, as it was a staff holiday, some went to TDAC and some to pay for food and promoting the event.
Free t-shirts and other free items were given out too.