Dance off!
All the kids participated in CHRI-FM 99.1’s freeze dance competition. Dancing is only permitted when music is playing but if you move when the music stops, you’re out. Glover photo

Wheee!
Ryker Dewar (left) and Addison Menkhorst raced through the bouncy castle donated by Southgate Church, coming to a close call with the slide at the end.
Glover photo

MOUNTAIN – Despite the rain trickling down, the spirits at the House of Lazarus’ Family Fun Day and Walk-a-thon were as high as ever Sat., May. 25 at the Mountain Memorial Park.

“Everyone’s having a great time,” said Kim Merkley, House of Lazarus’ client service manager. “We have a bouncy castle donated by the Southgate Church, we have vendors here, face painting by the Christian school and the Knights of Columbus are having their fundraiser barbecue.”

A total of six vendors including Raw4U, Di’s Hidden Jewels and Sweetlegs were in attendance at the Family Fun Day for a little extra promotion but there were supposed to be more.

“We have a total of six vendors here today, but we were supposed to have 10,” said Merkley. “They just didn’t show up. I’m thinking it was probably because of the weather, the prospect of rain, who knows.”

However, the House of Lazarus was able to, for the first time, invite the radio station CHRI-FM 99.1 to play music for the crowd and entertain the kids through different games.

“My daughter told me about the station’s Fun Team,” said Merkley. “I decided to try and contact them, ask them to come out and they did; they get more promotion and we get live music and games for the kids, it’s a win-win.”

According to Merkley, even though the threat of rain was sprinkling down on them, participation was still on the high side.

“The participation has been very good despite the weather; you’ll notice we chose the same day as the garage sales,” said Merkley.

Cathy Ashby, executive director of the House of Lazarus, added, “Oh, participation is definitely up. The community really sees what we’re doing and they want to come out and support us. The Family Fun Day is going amazingly as we’ve had a lot more participation in our Walk-a-thon and the children are enjoying the bouncy castle and other games.”