Crowds, cupcakes at Canada Day celebrations

The weather couldn't have been better as the 28th Annual University of Waterloo Canada Day Celebrations took place at Columbia Lake on Sunday.

The event featured music by Nate Hall, Rufus, Scotty James, and Chalkboard Menu, and an action-packed children's stage with performances by hip hop dancers, martial artists, and storytellers. A big hit with the kids this year was the addition of the Games Asylum, a video arcade on wheels, that offered free games of Halo, MarioKart, and Lego Rock Band. The usual lineup of bouncy castles and slides were also a major draw.

After the opening ceremonies at 6:00 p.m., local dignitaries, including Feridun Hamdullahpur, (above) passed out patriotically-iced cupcakes to the people on the field. Crowds were estimated at around 50,000 people, with the fields filling up as afternoon progressed into evening.

The Canada Day celebration is a volunteer-run event, with students doing a lot of the heavy lifting (literally!). The 28-person organizing committee puts in an impressive amount of work (2,380 hours by one estimate) leading up to the event, with more than 200 student and staff volunteers on the field July 1 handling a variety of tasks, including parking and event patrol, operations, staffing the information tent, selling glowsticks, working concessions, and helping out in the arts and crafts area, the children's stage, and the "activity world" area. Perhaps the most impressive work is done when the crowds leave and the volunteers pick up all the trash left behind, ensuring that the Columbia Lake Fields and Westmount area are spotless after the event.

The grand finale Sunday night was the fireworks display, which lit the darkening skies around the 10 o'clock mark and continued for more than twenty minutes.

"A huge thank you to everyone who assisted with this year's Canada Day Celebrations!" writes Jessica Chow, Canada Day Celebrations event manager. "Your support was crucial in the success of the celebrations and we are grateful for your generous contributions."

Chow continued: "a special thanks to Plant Operations for all of their work on the field and Central Stores for making deliveries to and from the field. We would also like to thank UW Food Services for the delicious cupcakes and Athletics for lending us their equipment. As well, we would like to thank Alumni Affairs, the UW Staff Association, police services, parking services, our student volunteers, and the community in general for making this event a huge success."

Photographs by Jonathan Bielaski, Light Imaging.

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Dragon Boat club competes in Hong Kong

Members of the University of Waterloo Dragon Boat Club (UWDBC) have gotten off to a strong start at their competition in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, where they are participating in the International Dragon Boat Federation Club Crew World Championships (CCWC).

"In the two races we participated in, we received silver for mixed 2000 m, and bronze for open 2000 m," reports team member Alexander Huynh. Race results are available online.

The UWDBC facilitates the creation and organization of dragon boat teams that represent the University of Waterloo at dragon boat regattas. The club is competing in the Under-23 category in the mixed division that includes races of 200 m, 500m, 1000 m and 2000 m in length.

The club's Facebook page contains the most frequent updates of the team's progress. The races are also being live streamed.

Next up for the club will be the six 200-metre courses today (give or take the twelve hour time difference), followed by six 500-metre courses on Saturday, July 7.

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