CCA Fall Festival in Dundonald Park a Major Success
The Dundonald Park Fall Fair was a major success this year after being cancelled the last two years.
Many different community groups and organizations were involved in planning the September 18 afternoon event. With masks and distancing in play, over 200 people engaged with the various displays and activities. The fair opened with Indigenous chanting and drumming to bless the event.
At one end of the park, close to the children’s playground, the air was filled with bubbles around the Centretown Community Health Centre (CCHC)’s Bubble and Movement activities for kids. Beside it were displays on pollination of plants. They included samples of various pollinator insects in small clear boxes and many blow-up photographs showing local flowers and their pollinators. The NeighbourWoods Centretown tree survey project also had a table.
There was a special display promoting the banning of single-use plastic, which showed three huge bags filled with plastic bottles that had been collected from streets and parks where they had been thrown away. Children pushed these around while parents tried to guess the number of bottles. The winner was given a multi-use drink container.
Tree sprouts and grow-your-own-microgreens kits were given away free at other tables, while children busily planted tulip bulbs in the garden beds, guided by the Dundonald Garden Group, for next spring’s blooming.
At the other end of the fair, a singer/guitarist performed and people could pick up packaged snacks and bags of hot popcorn from a free treats table. Close by, there was also a table with information about the Centretown Community Association and the Elgin Street Farmers Market.
Other tables had examples of Indigenous musical instruments (drums, rattles, clackers) and items that can be loaned from the Ottawa Tool Library. The CCHC handed out pulses soup mix and recipes. The Ottawa Art Gallery gave out Turtle Island beading kits to children.
The Ottawa Public Library had their Bibliobike so children could borrow books. On the grass beside this, a story time was held mid-fair, which included some singing and dancing with the children, and was again opened by Indigenous singing.
People of all ages and backgrounds attended the fair. But it was very special that so many parents with children were present.
If there is further opening up in the city of social gatherings, hopefully, more fairs, movies and other activities will return to the park. As people attending the fair came from farther afield than usual, it shows the great need for at least small parks in more locations throughout Somerset Ward.
-Stephen Thirlwall
