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Clinton Winter Carnival promises family-friendly fun and games

Carnival is being hosted by Cynders to celebrate the business's fifth anniversary in Clinton
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Violet, the Cynders shop dog, wants to invite everyone to Cynders' fifth anniversary event - a family winter carnival - at Clinton's Reg Conn Park on Saturday, Feb. 1.

To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Cynders in Clinton is holding a Family Winter Carnival at Reg Conn Park on Saturday, Feb. 1, and Jordan Johnston — part of the Cynders family —  says it’s a family-oriented event meant to promote the community.

“It’s to celebrate family, and all the support we’ve had,” she says. “We want to give back, so everyone is welcome, and there will be something for everyone.”

Cynders is a family-run business located in the Clinton landmark formerly known as the “blue barn”. It opened on Jan. 31, 2020, but within two months it — like so many other businesses — was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Johnston says that the store has always had tremendous support from customers along the Highway 1 and 97 corridor from Ashcroft to 100 Mile House.

“We got local support from the whole region. People stopped by when they came through Clinton.”

Johnston says that everyone at Cynders was talking about what they wanted to do to mark the fifth anniversary. “We wanted to give back, and partner with local businesses and First Nations and organizations.

“There isn’t much going on in winter, and our anniversary is Jan. 31, so we wanted to do something around then. We’re limited by the season, but wanted to encourage people to get out in winter, connect the community and bring families together, make it accessible, and give people something they could look forward to after the holidays.”

Acknowledging that there is a short timeline for the event, Johnston says they tried to do some outreach in December but had to wait until the New Year.

“It’s hard to plan during the holidays, so that means a smaller timeframe than we wanted, but we want to ensure that any business or organization that wants to be part of it has time to reach out and finalize things.”

Despite the relatively short notice, however, Johnston says they have had a flood of interest from community members who want to be involved.

“We’ve had lots of people reaching out to ask if they can help, and we’re in the process of getting back to everyone. People want to donate door prizes for the adults, and we’re arranging kids’ prizes for the kids’ centres, and we want to give away as many bundles as possible. We’ve already had lots of great donations: the quilters’ club donated a beautiful quilt, and High Bar First Nation has donated some beautiful items, while other businesses want to host different activities.”

She says that there will be a lot of activities, as well as local organizations setting up information booths. “We want to encourage people to join some of our local groups. It’s going to be a big community carnival, and we’re trying to finalize who’s bringing what and prepare a map so people can see who’s doing what.”

There will be free food, as well as winter games and activities, such as a ski race being sponsored by Cynders, and a snow sculpting and painting centre. Johnston says they’re also trying to line up some music, and have been reaching out to local bands to see if anyone can take over organizing that part of the event: “Ideally we’ll have multiple local bands to play, plus an open mic for little kids to sing with them.”

A website for the event has been created at https://cyndersinc.com/wintercarnival/, which will be updated as events and attractions are added. "We want to show everyone how exciting it's turning out to be," says Johnston.

She adds that admission is free, but anyone who wants to give back to the community in a small way is invited to bring donations of non-perishable food items for the Clinton Food Bank.

"There's already been so much support, and everyone is excited, and we want to give a huge thank you to everyone for the support they've already shown," says Johnston.

"We had a vision of bringing out communities and having fun, but we weren’t expecting this boom and so many people wanting to be part of it, so it’s very exciting. We had a picture of what we wanted it to be, and it’s exceeded that already.”

Anyone who would like to be involved in the Family Winter Carnival in Clinton can call or text Johnston at (778) 207-7776.