Canada Day celebrations came together fast and furious over the long weekend.
While the city and the parks association hosted the first-ever drone show at 10 pm on Monday, community organizers came together through Saturday and Sunday to plan a family event during the day that featured live music and games for children of all ages.
Piper Farrell, who started organizing the event in Schumacher Lions Club Park 48 hours beforehand, said that after asking for donations, they collected enough food to fill the back of a pick-up truck. She said her father estimated it to be around 400 lbs of food.
“It’s hard to judge how much 400 pounds is,” she said.
The food will go to the Timmins Food Bank.
Hundreds of people attended the event, and Estella Chow, who was there cooking hot dogs with the Filipino Association in Timmins, said they’d served 650 hot dogs by 2:30 p.m. They started the grill at 9 a.m.
She said seeing people pull together so quickly was a great thing.
“With family help, anything is possible,” said Chow.
The party in the park ended around 6 pm, giving everyone enough time to get to Gillies Lake as the music started for the official celebrations.
The south bank of Gillies Lake was filled with people looking forward to the drone show, which started around 10:15 p.m., but before the drones left the ground, cupcakes and cake had people lining up.
After a premature countdown and a quick recount, the drones took off, taking shape as a waving Canadian flag, a map of Canada, miners, mine carts, and animals, all seeming to move through the skies.
The drone show cost $30,000 and was sponsored by the Bucket Shop, Northern College, and the City of Timmins.
