Community Corner

Lots of Snow Perfect For Upcoming Snowflake Festival

The Feb. 13 festival will help residents embrace winter.

David Genty was hoping to have some snow for Huntley Park District’s first ever Snowflake Festival.

He didn’t quite expect 20 inches of snow, which will likely stick around for the Feb. 13 event.

“We didn’t think we’d get that much,” said Genty, recreation supervisor of marketing and special events for the park district. “I don’t want to say this (extreme snow) is perfect, but it’s definitely a good fit for what we are doing.”

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The Snowflake Festival is being held from 1 to 3 pm that day at the park district’s Mill Street location. Genty is planning lots of activities including horse drawn carriage rides through picturesque Deicke Park and carnival games with a winter theme, he said.

“We are providing opportunities for people to experience and embrace the winter,” he said.

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Snowball basketball and snowball bowling are some of the games. There will also be a hockey shoot out game, indoor and outdoor, he said. Materials to build a sled will be on hand at the festival then a sledding competition will be held at the Deicke Park sledding hill, he said.

The Huntley Penguins Snowmobile club will be bringing snowmobiles for children to pose on while parents snap a photo. There will also be a Siberian husky rescue group out of Harvard with several dogs for children to meet, he said.

Genty joined the staff just a few months ago and immediately jumped into planning the Snowflake Festival. The Huntley Jaycees are co-sponsoring the festival along with Ryland Homes and Crystal Ice House, an indoor skating rink in Crystal Lake.

“It’s been fine,” Genty said. “I’m use to planning events so I was able to jump right into this. We’ve had great sponsors come on board,” he said.

The community has “shown great support for this event,” he said.

The Snowflake Festival is free but some activities or games require tickets, which cost 25 cents a piece.

“This will be a one of kind of event for Huntley,” Genty said. “The challenge is getting it off the ground and going but I foresee this event being around for a long time.”

 


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