Curve Lake elder to open children’s water festival

The importance of water will be highlighted during a two-day event for elementary students happening at Riverview Park and Zoo this week.

The annual Peterborough Children’s Water Festival takes place Wednesday and Thursday.

It features 34 interactive learning centres that all involve water.

Students in Grades 2 to 5 from 20 schools across the city and county will be participating. More than 1,400 students will take part overall.

Through the learning centres, kids will be able to explore the concepts of water conservation, technology, protection and science.

Dorothy Taylor, an elder from Curve Lake First Nation, will open the festival with a traditional water ceremony.

Patricia Skopelianos, chairwoman of the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival, said the goal of the festival is to bring awareness to all aspects of water, from drinking water to its uses.

While it’s important for the young students to understand the concept of water and why it’s so valuable, it’s equally as important that they implement what they’ve learned.

“That they understand that water is a limited resource and that they need to do things in their own lives every day to conserve water and to reuse as best they can as they grow up,” Skopelianos said.

Since launching in 2002, in the wake of the 2000 Walkerton, Ont. E. coli outbreak, more than 22,000 area students have taken part in the festival.

Skopelianos said festival organizers try to introduce new learning centres that are pertinent to what’s going on in the world everyday.

This year, two new activities, Water to Plastic, Plastic to Water and Water in You, were brought on board. Both exercises explore the linkages between the food chain, human health and clean water.

The festival was created through a partnership between the city, Peterborough Utilities Services, Riverview Park and Zoo, Green Up, Otonabee Conservation, Trent University and the Ontario Water Power Association.