Rain Adds Splash Of Fun To Carnival Day

By Kendra Bobowick

“You can’t rain on our parade; we’re still going,” said camp counselor Melissa Staples. During Carnival Day at the Parks and Recreation Department’s summer camp program, children slick with afternoon rain Friday, August 10, splashed and ran through Treadwell Park.

Counselor Kyle Moore found a dry spot beneath the park’s pavilion and watched the campers toss water balloons and run in and out of the downpour. “The rain became part of the fun. They’re soaked,” he laughed. Carnival Day included cotton candy, water balloon fights, playing on a bounce house, and other activities.

As rain steadily dripped from his hair, counselor-in-training Mike Eiseley helped camper Michael Poidomani fill balloons at a water station. Waiting her turn was Genevieve Richards, dressed perfectly for the wet weather in her bright yellow bathing suit.

Squeals came from inside the bounce house that was slippery enough to send laughing campers sprawling while their friends squirted water their way. Up the hill and propped on a picnic table beneath the pavilion was a cotton candy machine that wafted sugary scents past campers eagerly waiting for their own tangle of sweet, bright blue fluff. Standing over the machine was Site Director Jackie Alpert, who looked at the expectant children’s faces and said, “Oh no! We need more sugar.”

Asking them to “hang on, I need to refill,” she smiled at demands of “please, can I have more?” With his treat balanced atop a paper cone, Jason Benson bit at his cotton candy, which melted into blue stains on his lips.

Ms Alpert said that the camping and fun would go on until they heard thunder, which never came.