Community spirit is well and alive in Sparwood.
Bad weather did not deter hundreds of people from turning out for the Coal Miner Days parade last Saturday.
It was one of many family-friendly events hosted by the Coal Miner Days Society from June 8-10 and featured about 30 floats, with groups traveling from as far as Cranbrook to take part.
“I thought it was really well attended actually, especially considering the weather wasn’t the best, we kind of had rain on-and-off all day Saturday,” said coordinator Justine Bowen.
“We had made some changes where we started charging for Kidsfest and we weren’t sure if that was going to deter people from coming but it didn’t. We sold over 400 (tickets).”
This year’s cabaret was also a hit.
“We had Aaron Pritchett perform as well as a local band called Seany J and the Boys,” said Bowen.
“It was one of our highest attended cabarets in quite a while, so we had almost 600 people attend.”
Coal Miner Days is a celebration of the Sparwood community and has been running for decades.
“We try to have a little bit of something for everybody and try to do as many activities either free or very low cost,” said Bowen.
“It brings our community together and celebrates Sparwood and how great it is.”
Bowen is stepping down as coordinator after five years in the role and encouraged anyone interested in applying to email coalminerdays@hotmail.com.
The winning floats were:
Best antique car - black SS
Child/youth - Sparwood Minor Ball
Service/church group - Knights of Columbus
Business - Cummins
Community - Sparwood
Community Group - ESS
Best Animal - Valley Riders
Most Creative - Putters Grill
