You spin me right round baby
Circus performer Marianne Trenka (right) put on a show of twirling batons and lights for the community of Crysler during the Thread from the Heart event Sat., Feb. 16. After the show, Trenka invited people up to perform with her. Also pictured: Kim LeBrum. Glover photo

CRYSLER – For five days, the 53rd annual Crysler Winter Carnival came to town in full force from Wed., Feb. 13 – Sun., Feb. 17 to give the community one of the most successful carnivals in recent years, with families coming out from Ingleside and Cornwall.

“We probably served over 1,000 people over the course of the whole event,” said Danielle Linnett, carnival chairperson. “It was certainly, by far, one of the most successful carnivals we’ve ever had. We sort of mixed things up for this year’s carnival from some of our more traditional events.” 

Linette wanted to attract more families to the carnival with more activities and events that better suited a more family-oriented experience. 

“We had more family-oriented activities like fundraising and Threads from the Heart, which we ended up raising $650 in ticket sales to go to Victoria Quilts Canada,” she said. “We also managed to raise about $5,000 of materials to go to Victoria Quilts locally from the silent auction.”

Rockin’ for the ODR
Still in good spirits after rocking for close to 20 hours during the 2019 Tony’s Rockathon which raises money for the ODR. From the left are, Front Row: Claude Quesnel, Francis Briere, Tony Briere Jr., Jean Richer, Dan Richer. Back Row: Kevin Lapp.  Thompson Goddard photo

According to Linette, this was one of the most successful carnivals in recent years with huge numbers in attendees participating in each of the events.

“I would say that we had at least between 200 – 300 people at each of our events,” she said. “People really enjoyed the circus performance from Marianne Trenka from Orbital Talent and Junkyard Symphony came and the kids really seemed to like them. The horse sleigh rides through the park also really appealed to some of our older participants and families.”

Linette admitted that this year’s attendance was a really happy surprise with people travelling long distances in order to attend.

“This year was kind of explosive and I just hope that we can keep going from the momentum that we just had this year,” she said. “I saw people here that I had never seen before. We’re a small town so we know our community rather well and there were a lot of people from outside of our community from surrounding areas like Cornwall, Ingleside, just everywhere. It was really nice to see that our carnival has reached out so far and hopefully we can keep it up for next year.”