HARNOOR GILL

This father’s day was one to remember. The Big DADDY Festival ran from June 17, 2011 till June the 19^th in Halton Hills, Ontario. This astounding event inspired many of the local residents to come out and enjoy themselves in the hot summer heat. I volunteered on all of the three days of this festival. For example, I volunteered in Downtown Georgetown with Halton Hills Cultural Roundtable, POWER (Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources) for the Acton Prospect Park and Willow Park Ecology Centre in Norval. In downtown Georgetown, I volunteered at the Chill Zone on road blocks and was letting people know more about the Big Daddy Festival. In the Chill Zone, there was non-stop live music going on and when kids were passing by I was given the task of handing tattoos out to them. Later on I relieved people who stopped cars from rummaging the event but people who were part of the bands were allowed to go past the road blocks. Another job I had was to hand out brochures/pamphlets about the Big DADDY Festival at the road blocks so that people would get an idea about what was going on in their local community.

At The Prospect Park on June 18, 2011, I volunteered with POWER to plant native shrubs/trees and have nature talks. The Sugar Maple I planed was close to Fairy Lake. Many dads were planting trees with their kids as well. I also tried a fishing fly and obtained my fishing license. I learned how we can stop using chemicals that harm the environment. This demonstration was provided by the CVC (Credit Valley Conservation) officials. The information I learnt about the environment was taught by the CVC, too. They had brought some wild birds such as a barn owl and the vulture. They also had a presentation board informing us about the birds’ food chain, its history and how we can help conserve the wild life. The CVC also has a program called the Stream of Dreams that reminds us we should stop littering in our rivers and lakes. To show that they have some trout cut onto wood in a wavy line that is then coloured by the students in the schools’ green team. In the evening, I let my heat off my feet and added colour to the festival, by performing a hip hop routine at the open stage in Chill Zone in Downtown Georgetown.

At Norval in the WPEC on June 19, 2011 I helped with the paddle-to-the-sea canoe race, scavenger hunt and registration for coming in and basically volunteered as runner. I also made my own drum and decorated it with lots of colourful feathers, bells, tattoos and stickers. For the scavenger hunt, we gave sheets out that depicted what the scavengers (kids) were to find. The scavengers were also given a basket into which they would place their scavenged items. When scavengers had found everything on the list they were given the prize. The items on the list were plants like mint, teasel, garlic mustard, cones from fir trees, snail shell, small stone, and even the name of the wildlife artist quoted on the pavilion. Another volunteering job that I had taken was the Paddle-to-the-Sea Canoe Race where I fastened the little paddlers on to their canoes and dropped them over the bridge to start the race. There were two races in total. For the two races there were two different heats, in one there were twenty canoeists and in the other heat there were about twenty one canoeists. I also announced when to start the race using one of those amplifiers to countdown from 10 till 1 and threw the boats at the same time with the help of my parents. The paddle boats were trying to win the race to win a prize. In total there were five winners that each received a prize that was environmentally friendly. I had a great time volunteering in the community and I hope that Halton Hills had a great time with their Big Daddy Festival because I sure know my dad had a good time with me.

This is a summary of Gill’s volunteer involvement for in the Halton Hills Big DADDY Festival

November 12th, 2011 | | |  Print This Post |  Email This Post Category: Blogs, Canada
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