By Jordan Studer
jstuder@wbcowqel.com
The sun shining bright Saturday morning proved to be a gorgeous day for Lowe-Volk Park’s annual Water Carnival. Since 2009, Lowe Volk has been hosting a Water Carnival in which families and kids of all ages can come and partake in many fun water activities.
Josh Dyer, program director, said the purpose of the Water Carnival is a “. . . celebration of enjoying water. It’s wonderful we’ve had a plentiful year of it with all of the rain this summer.”
PHOTOS: 2015 Crawford Park District Water Carnival
Beginning at 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. cars crowded the parking lot and the yards were covered with more people than mud as everyone came to partake in the fun event.
Dyer seemed to be very happy with the turnout and expressed with a laugh, “it’s going swimmingly.”
With many activities for kids to enjoy, there was never a dull moment. From water biking, water balloon launching, bottle launching, to slip n’ slide kickball, laughter was filling the air.
Also filling the air was a loud “ping” of kids hitting the large aluminum strip that was the designated target for the water balloon launch.
“Heads up!” was also a very common sound as plastic bottles were also being launched high into the air and across the yard as they were filled with water and air.
One of the biggest hit was the “water bubble” as many called it. A giant plastic ball that kids could get inside was floating in the pond. Kids were lined up to climb in the big ball, which resembled a hamster ball. Once they were inside the bubble was filled with air, rolled down the slope, and started to float.
A smiling Brode Smith said the best part of riding in the “water bubble” was “. . .having fun and trying to move around in it.” He admitted that it was a bit hard to move around, but not too bad and still fun.
Young Lilly Gosser, also said her favorite part was, “. . . the big bubble.” She too said how fun the water bike and the slip n’ slide kickball were and how much she loved them both.
The water bike also accompanied the water bubble in the pond. Children all suited up with life jackets crowded the dock in hopes of their turn to ride the water bike. Two kids, Adam Shaffer and Jade Crisp said that without a doubt the bike was their absolute favorite part of the whole event.
Firefighters were also present at the carnival with their powerful hoses, ready to entertain with a game of water ball. Two sets of hoses with firefighters assembled to aim at a ball that was tied to a long cord. Whichever hose was able to hit the ball more directly would send the ball rolling to the opposite side of the line.
The newest addition to the water carnival was a kickball game that contained a slip n’ slide with a mini water pool for the bases taking the feeling of sliding into base to a whole new level. The long line of kids was clear proof that the addition was a huge hit and loved by all.
A site specifically set up just for kids 3 and under was also made filled with squirt toys and mini pools to be sure they too could enjoy the water. Many other events were scattered around so that no one could say they had nothing to do.
As for expansion of the event Dyer said, “We really would like to bigger area for our slip n’ slide kickball but we are kind of limited with that but we’ve had ideas of possibly having dunk machines here. Cause everybody wants to get Josh wet.”
Dyer laughed, “I seem to be the target!”
And a target he was, as many kids were running around others were launching balloons or water from squirt toys directly at Dyer who was in the middle of all of the action.
A photo gallery from the Water Carnival can be found on the Photo page.