Familiar faces for Water Wednesdays
The Peterborough Children’s Water Festival returns
“There’s water in the sea and there’s water in me.
There’s water flowing down the old Otonabee.
Sitting by the water what a peaceful sound.
It’s a never-ending cycle going around and round and round.
It’s time for Water Wednesday Hip Hip Hooray.
Let’s make a big splash what do you say?
Flowing through Peterborough down the waterway.
Hip Hip Hooray for Water Wednesday.”
This week we begin a month of Water Wednesdays. The new Peterborough Children’s Water Festival theme song penned by the Paddling Puppeteer Glen Caradus perfectly encapsulates the magic of our second virtual festival.
Recorded beside the fast-flowing spring melt of Jackson Creek, the video of Glen’s song captures both the energy and the themes of this May’s online water education celebration.
Like last year’s festival, each week will begin with banjo fingers flying and tongue twisting around the rich and diverse themes of water education. The fully-booked festival will welcome 100 Grade 2 to Grade 5 classes from across Peterborough City and County to tune in for a weekly injection of local water education.
Glen’s sing along will launch each day of our incredible 2022 festival line up. Our lineup features local water heroes and familiar faces. Elder Dorothy Taylor from Oshkigamong /Curve Lake First Nation and Shaelyn Wabegijig from Kawartha World Issues Centre will begin the festival in a good way.
Students will be inspired by many other engaging appearances during the four weeks of programming, including the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, Otonabee Conservation, the Atlantic Salmon Education team at the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, the Riverview Park and Zoo Education team, the Peterborough Utilities Water Treatment Plant, and the City of Peterborough Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Last May, we launched our firstever online Peterborough Children’s Water Festival. It was a huge success, attended by 1,500 students. That success is because the virtual festival offers a unique opportunity for students to get to know local water experts.
“In addition to the practical knowledge that students obtained from presentations, I believe the variety of speakers provided the opportunity for students to hear from others who have a passion for water,” shares Tanya Hunter from Roseneath Public School. “These experts presented many different aspects of the importance of water. This is valuable because students don't always get to hear from people who are truly passionate about a cause; this can be the spark to ignite their own passions, and if not a career with water, they see modelled how people make careers of passions.”
“The magic of the festival every Wednesday,
Meeting water heroes throughout the month of May.
Culture, Conservation, Science Protection too
Each week a new adventure with Julius and crew.”
Host Julius the Turtle welcomes water heroes from across the region. A highlight of this second annual online festival will be virtual field trips across the Otonabee Watershed, including a stop at the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC) located in Peterborough.
Julius and all our grade 2 to 5 students will join Wendy, the OTCC’s education co-ordinator, for a backstage tour of the OTCC’s vital efforts to protect and conserve Ontario’s native turtles and their habitat. Students will discover what really happens at a turtle hospital that treats, rehabilitates, and releases injured turtles.
A visit to the OTCC is not the only new addition to this year’s festival. Also new this year, the magic of the festival is enhanced with classroom kits for registered classes. With the incredible co-ordination of PCWF steering committee members Shawna Corcoran and Cathy Mitchell, zoo volunteers assembled 100 classroom kits for distribution. These kits support learning in tangible ways and invite reflection on our water festival pillars.
“In Ojibway it’s Nibi in French it’s L’eau.
We all live downstream in a neverending flow.
Water gives us life, yes this we know A solid, liquid, gas called H2O.”
Grounding students’ understanding that “Water is Life” is vital to inspiring our love and protection. Each classroom kit contains a book celebrating Indigenous water protectors. The book Water Walker
celebrates Josephine Mandamin. Elder Dorothy Taylor is a local water walker who joined with Josephine on a number of walks hosted by the Sacred Water Circle. Elder Dorothy Taylor will share with students her understanding of the life force of Nibi and the need to take action, including offering daily gratitude for water.
As we water young minds at the festival, grades 2 and 3 pupils will be watering seeds to reveal the lifegiving forces of water. They will monitor soil moisture with moisture metres donated by the Peterborough Utilities Group.
Grades 4 and 5 pupils will try a water treatment experiment, using alum like that used at water and waste water treatment plants to help flocculate suspended solids out of water. They will be able to share their successes with Kent Keeling, Chief Environmental Officer for the City of Peterborough and longtime PCWF steering committee member.
“Racing through the watershed to Lake Ontario
Creeks streams and rivers through our watersheds they flow.
Peterborough County, Nogojiwanong
Let’s celebrate Nibi with our water Wednesday song.”
The injection of learning over the course of a month also provides an opportunity to become more aware of our local watershed. This awareness reinforces important leanings and inspires behavioural change. We will wrap up each festival day with an invitation for students to explore their own relationship to water, equipped with more knowledge to improve their impact on water.
The festival works in partnership with educators, water quality and quantity specialists, community volunteers, conservation groups, as well as representatives from industry and government to create a festival full of activities that are educational and fun.
This year’s festival is possible thanks to an amazing list of supporters and benefactors, includes the City of Peterborough, Peterborough Utilities, TD Friends of the Environment, Kawartha Credit Union, Siemens, Ontario Power Generation, Trent University, Herb Lang Drilling, and other festival donors.
To find out more or financially support, please visit pcwf.net or email info@pcwf.net.
It’s the kind of day where using the same old approach or method won’t work. Today encourages us to come up with something new or inventive. It’s a good time to experiment or try things out without worrying too much about the end result. Sometimes we need to push past our comfort zone in order to figure out the next best steps or option.
All that being said, we shouldn’t be too quick to make long-term decisions. We should take some time to sit with the information or ideas we have and check in with our intuition.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19)
An opportunity that might seem like a long shot could actually pay off. Consider it worth the risk.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20)
You’re encouraged to go your own way instead of following someone else’s lead. Success won’t be too far behind.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20)
Let your heart guide you in your decision-making today rather than your head. You’ll be happy with the results.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22)
What can you do to inspire or encourage change? It’s a good time for supporting a humanitarian or philanthropic cause.
LEO (July 23 to Aug. 22)
When thinking about your next steps related to your career or goals, you’re encouraged to shake things up a bit. Leave the old you behind.
VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)
You may get an opportunity to teach or present on something you know. Your originality is what will wow and inspire the crowd.
LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)
You could be ready to let go of something emotionally. You’re making space for new and better things to enter your life.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)
Love could pleasantly catch you by surprise if you’re single. Meanwhile, if you’re partnered, plan a spur-of-the-moment date.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21)
You can make more progress with a lifestyle change or a new routine by bringing a buddy on board. Two heads are better than one.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19)
You’re brimming with creativity and inspiration today. If you’re ready to bring an idea to life, you’ve got the green light.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)
You’re feeling the urge to make changes to your home. Perhaps the bedroom or living room could use an update.
PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20)
Avoid playing it safe. This is your chance to take a bold or unique approach in executing a plan or getting where you want to be.
FOR TODAY’S BIRTHDAY
You consider yourself to be a leader, not a follower. You take risks guided by your passions and live life on your terms.
When one door closes, you’re the kind of person who will go through the window instead.
Where there’s a will, you will find a way, as you don’t take no for an answer.
Thanks to your limitless creativity, you’re never short on innovative solutions or ideas.
Your profound insight and witty takes are exactly what people need. This year, expect big changes ahead, as you’re on your way to unveiling a new life and a new you.
BIRTHDATE OF:
Kimora Lee Simmons, model/ businesswoman; Ana Gasteyer, actress/comedian; Will Arnett, actor/comedian.