The Chatham-Kent and Lambton Children’s Water Festival returns to C.M. Wilson Conservation Area next week, bringing hands-on lessons about water to hundreds of local elementary students each day.
The three-day event runs Tuesday, Oct. 6, through Thursday, Oct. 8, at the conservation area on Fargo Road. Organizers expect 650 to 700 elementary students each day, with the support of more than 300 student volunteers, 400 teacher and parent volunteers and 150 adult volunteers over the week.
The program delivers hands-on activities covering five water themes: water science, water technology, water conservation, water protection and water attitude. About 45 activities are offered each year on a six-acre day-use area, with an adjacent two-acre pond adding an aquatic setting. Teachers and volunteers have described the event as a giant outdoor classroom.
Since 2007, more than 24,000 elementary students and 3,700 high school students, along with 2,600 teachers and parents, have experienced the festival. More than 1,200 adult volunteers have helped deliver it over that time.
Four school boards are involved: the Lambton Kent District School Board, the St. Clair Catholic District School Board, the French school board and the Chatham Christian School Board. Other partners include the Lower Thames Valley and St. Clair Region conservation authorities, the Rotary Club of Chatham Sunrise, the Kiwanis Club of Chatham-Kent, Captain Garnet Bracken IODE and the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.
Organizers say the festival balances rural and urban scenarios relevant to southwestern Ontario. Some activities include First Nations Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and the program also covers the local effects of climate change, such as lakeshore flooding and erosion, algae blooms and ways to reduce phosphorus runoff. All activities are linked to the Ontario school curriculum.
The festival was recognized with two awards in the 2023 Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority Volunteer Heroes Award Series, one for the long-term support of border services and police foundations students since 1987 and one for the Rotary Club of Chatham Sunrise.
