Canada Day celebrations set for Zwick’s Park

By Jack Carver

Canada Day is set to impress this year in Belleville as dozens of events finish setting up in west Zwick’s Park.

With activities like puppet shows, tug of war, an 1812 re-enactment, celebrity hog racing, and a search and rescue demonstration in the bay, Eric Lindenberg, the communication co-ordinator of the Canada Day committee, said that there’s something for everyone.

“We have the entire west Zwick’s Park for the day,” said Lindenberg. “We have music from noon till dusk, activities for kids, a lot of general, all ages stuff.”

The Canada Day committee of seven starts planning for Canada Day just after New Years to get everything sorted out.

“We start rolling shortly after the New Year, we’ve all got lots of experience, and this would be the seventh year that we had done it,” Lindenberg said. “ I’ve been on the committee since day one in different capacities. It’s been a great event and a great committee that put things together.”

They expect about 10,000 attendees this year in comparison to last year’s 12,000. Lindenberg said that they’re expecting a bit less this year with Canada Day falling on the Sunday and not the stat holiday, as some businesses will remain open during the celebrations.

But no matter how many people show up, pride will be on display in full force during the celebrations, Lindenberg said.

“It’s red and white, just a sea of red and white,” he said. “Faces are painted, it’s a great day. When everyone is out there waving the maple leaf, its just great to see. And we get all walks of life, from every age group, every demographic in town will show up down there, its great. It’s a day you can just celebrate how fortunate we all are to be Canadian.”

But the best part of the day is just seeing the smiling faces of everyone in the park, Lindenberg said.

“Probably one of the most magical moments is when you go out on top of a hill, mid-afternoon,” he said.” And you’ll just look at the park and it’s full of happy people, everybody in town shows up for Canada Day, and this is where you can show it off.”

The committee is looking for more volunteers to help set up. Anyone interested can head to http://www.bellevillecanadaday.com/ for more information.