Snow day canceled:
Warm weather melts San Rafael’s sledding hill
The first time many young San Rafael residents see snow is when machines bring about 40 tons of ice downtown for the annual Winter Wonderland in their usually snowless city.
Parents take their children to the annual downtown parade, which is always centered around the city’s popular makeshift sled hill. This weekend, thousands of children arrived to play in bounce houses, snack on treats and wait a half hour in line for the coveted free sled ride.
But only on Friday. By Saturday, the second day of the celebration, the fabricated winter had disappeared as the artificial snow melted to levels unsafe for sledding. Instead, children used plastic cups to make “snow castles” in the grass while their parents looked on.
“You can’t fight Mother Nature,” said Brian Auger, the city events coordinator. “We went with the B Plan.”
It’s not the first time the city had to change plans in its 27year history of faux snow sledding, Auger said. Sometimes rain cancels the event. This year, it was the warm weather. The high was 68 degrees Friday, rising to 70 Saturday.
Delane Larson said she and her son made the 40-minute drive from Santa Rosa on Saturday morning to find more slush than snow. Still, 7-yearold Nakoa got a plastic cup and went to town.
“We’re pretty disappointed, but we’re making the best of it,” she said. “The kids are having a blast. They’re all having fun making their little ice home.”
Narahya Byrne, a San Anselmo resident, dropped in to a Starbucks next door where a sympathetic barista offered the cups for free, she said. Her 4-year-old son, Aidan, happily walked around with his own cup of snow.
“At least they’re getting to play with the snow,” she said. “That’s something nice.”
Steve Merrifield, whose Demo Sport ski shop co-sponsors the event, shoveled out leftover snow from the sledding area so children could scoop up ice in their cups.
In the past, “our jaws hurt from laughing watching the kids go down the hill,” he said.
But after he shoveled out snow for kids to play with in the grass, he said he noticed most of the children were still excited.
“It just proves how little it takes for kids,” Merrifield said. “They can just play with a little ice and be happy.”
Novato resident Marie Scutt took her 5-year-old daughter, Gabriella, to the event Friday but came back for another go at the sledding Saturday.
“Last night, she was like, ‘I want to do it again. I want to do it again,’ ” Scutt said.
Gabriella didn’t get to do it again. But she grabbed a cup of ice and didn’t seem to mind.
“She always entertains herself and makes the best of the situation,” Scutt said.
The activity is run every year by Steven Restivo Event Services, a Bay Area event planning company. The snow alone costs $15,000, and the company sometimes loses money running the event, city officials said. But it remains a passion project for Restivo, a San Rafael resident.
As more children arrived, workers with the event company blocked off a small section of the sledding area that still had non-melted ice so kids could play in the snow without a sled.
Kids marched around, intermittently shouting “whoa” when the ground got slippery.
Soon, a line formed just for a turn to walk around in the ice.