Sun ready to shine on Canada Day party

The dumpsters and garbage cans, the tents and the porta-potties, should all be in place by now on the fields north of Columbia Street, where tomorrow’s Canada Day celebration is expected to bring 60,000 visitors to help mark the country’s 144th birthday.

The weather forecast is looking perfect — sunny and warm — for the annual Canada Day event, co-sponsored by the University of Waterloo and the Federation of Students.

It’s a massive undertaking, as infrastructure for the afternoon and evening celebrations includes hand sanitizing stations, shelters for food and crafts, equipment for children’s games, a stage and loudspeakers for performers, the trucks from which fireworks are launched, and signs, barricades and cellphones for the security crew.

"It's wonderful to see the dedication from our student volunteers, who have been working extremely hard to provide an entertaining day for the community," says a statement from Lisa Willan, the student who’s serving as event manager. "Waterloo students give back to the local community by celebrating Canada's birthday with friends and families." The Math Society and Engineering Society are among organizations sending large numbers of volunteers.

It's one of the largest Canada Day celebrations in southwestern Ontario. Everyone is invited to attend; the action begins at 2 p.m. and continues throughout the day, wrapping up at 10 p.m. with the grand finale of fireworks. (Most children's activities run from 2 to 8 p.m.) The student-led festivity, now in its 27th year, offers a wealth of cheerful activities for all ages, along with diverse musical entertainment.

Among the attractions: a foil art demonstration, dinosaur puzzle, the “toilet paper challenge”, a telescope display and a Mars Rover model, green smoothies made in a bicycle-powered blender, liquid nitrogen ice cream, children’s colouring, a 1912 Model T Ford, a fire safety demonstration, a blood pressure clinic, face painting and a fossil fish scavenger hunt.

The Canada Day event will feature live music throughout the day and evening. Golden-voiced Pat Robitaille, headline performer, will play the main stage at 9:15 p.m. Secret Broadcast, a Calgary rock band, perform at 8:15 p.m., and The Guys, a dance-rock band, appear at 7:15 p.m. Waterloo's Scotty James, a singer/ songwriter, performs at 6:15 p.m. Earlier, The Lines Between, a rock band from Grand Bend, open the day's live music entertainment at 2 p.m., followed by Juice, a hip hop-R&B band, at 3 p.m., AirPlay, a classic rock band, at 4 p.m., and pop-rocker Eddy Culjak at 5 p.m.

Official opening ceremonies take place at 6 p.m., complete with a birthday party and free cupcakes for the community.

An arts and crafts fair will feature a wide selection of hand-made goods and kid-friendly products. Food will be available in a UW concessions tent with pizza, burgers and so on, plus food vendors “from Greek food to health food”.

Parking is free in most university lots for the day, but the lots beside the Village residences will not be available, and the road through the residence area will be closed to traffic. Accessible parking is available at the Accelerator building, located on Hagey Drive on the north campus.

Traffic has traditionally been a Canada Day challenge, especially as the massive crowds head home at the end of the fireworks show, and visitors should know that Columbia Street will be closed from Westmount Road to Hagey Boulevard.

Admission to the day is free, though there will be many opportunities to spend money: not just the food tents but also the arts-and-crafts fair and some souvenir sales. In addition, donation boxes will be available throughout the day, collecting funds to help with the cost of fireworks for next year.

The Canada Day celebration “is made possible by the support of many local businesses and organizations,” an announcement says. “Key sponsors are the Department of Canadian Heritage, City of Waterloo, City of Kitchener, Waterloo Region Record, CHYM FM, Sherwood Systems Inc., United Rentals, Waterloo Printing, J. M. Schneider Foods, Domino’s Pizza, Dundee Realty Management Corp. and Waterloo Regional REACT.”

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Holiday weekend and many other notes

Canada Day tomorrow is a national holiday, of course, and thus the university will be closed. Classes will not be held, staff have the day off, and most services will not operate. The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries will be open from noon to 6 p.m. only, with normal hours resuming Saturday and Sunday. The Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield will be closed Friday, open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Mudie's cafeteria in Village I will have limited hours (11:30 to 6:30) on Friday and Saturday. As always, even on holidays, the university police (519-888-4911) will be at work, the Student Life Centre (519–888-4434) will be open, and the central plant will monitor campus buildings (maintenance emergencies, ext. 33793).

As we reach the halfway point in the calendar year, there are a couple of previously announced changes in the administrative ranks. Today ends the five-year term of Ken Coates as Waterloo's dean of arts; Douglas Peers, previously of York University, becomes dean as of July 1. Also leaving office today is Henry Paetkau, president of Conrad Grebel University College since January 2003. His successor as of July 1 is Susan Schultz Huxman, arriving from Wichita State University in Kansas.

The Federation of Students had planned to send one bus to Toronto Sunday for the Pride Parade, but now two buses are going and some seats are still available. "The trip is open to all members of the uWaterloo community whether they would like to march in the parade or simply take it all in from the audience," says Kirsty Budd in the Feds office. "Pride celebrates our diverse sexual and gender identities, histories, cultures, creativities, families, friends and lives. Join the One Waterloo Campaign in celebrating this diversity by marching with us in the 2011 Toronto Pride Parade. Students, staff, faculty, and alumni are invited to join the parade contingent. Participants must wear black and gold to march with uWaterloo." Details about tickets are online. A note from Jeremy Steffler of the staff association adds that "There has also been a push to try to get more representation from faculty, staff and alumni in the contingent. It would be great to see a large group out to support our students. People can also make their own arrangements to and from Toronto and meet up in Toronto to march."

A group of students from the Waterloo Rocketry Team went to Green River, Utah, earlier this month to compete in the sixth Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition — the first time Waterloo’s been involved. “The team was founded in 2010 by three mechanical engineering students,” says Ali Karimi, who made the Utah trip along with Isaac Jourard, Steven Borgdorff, William Durocher and Ben Criger. “We had more than 25 active members who contributed, but we couldn't take everybody,” he notes. “The rocket (hybrid engine, pressurized tank, structural body, fibreglass skin) was entirely designed and built by UW students. Unfortunately due to some miscommunications, the organizers of the competition made us make some last minute changes in our fueling procedure which significantly lowered our hybrid engine performance,” and the Waterloo team didn’t place this year. But photos (left) and video are available.

This year's month-long Shad Valley program starts on Sunday with the arrival of 48 high school students from across Canada. "Waterloo was the first university campus to host this award-winning program in 1983 and remains the flagship program for the now 10 host campuses across Canada,” says Ed Jernigan, Shad Waterloo program director, and director of the Centre for Knowledge Integration, who incidentally will be living in residence at Conrad Grebel University College with the Shads, for the 26th straight summer. Shad Valley is an enrichment program for teenagers with strong interests and potential in sciences, technology, engineering and entrepreneurship and involves as many as 600 high school students each summer. The first week of July will bring Designer Boot Camp, after which which small groups will work on a design project, including creating a working prototype. Lectures and workshops offered by faculty from across campus, and from interested companies, are also part of the month's agenda. The Shads will hold a public open house to show off their achievements on Thursday afternoon, July 28, in the great hall at Grebel.

"This month Waterloo’s international recruitment efforts continue in the United Kingdom," says a note from Allison Wells of the marketing and undergraduate recruitment office. "The primary focus of this trip is our participation in the Study Canada Marquee taking place July 1. The marquee is part of Canada Day festivities taking place in Trafalgar Square. Waterloo will be one of four top Canadian universities represented. Future students and alumni have been encouraged to connect with the university by stopping by the event. I’ll be in London from June 27 to July 1 and also have plans meet with high school counsellors and representatives from the High Commission."

The athletics department has expanded its program of Warrior sports camps for youngsters this year, adding some offerings including a "multi-sport camp" for kids aged 7 to 12 that will run next week and again August 15-19. There are also specialized camps for basketball, field hockey, ice hockey and volleyball. A number of the programs for boys' hockey are not day-long camps but one-hour-a-week training sessions in shooting, passing, stickhandling and other skills. Details are online.

And . . . as Royal Tour fever grips the land, a recently graduated Waterloo drama student (BA 2010) will be meeting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a reception today in Ottawa. Heather Muir, who's an active volunteer with Canadian Blood Services, is one of 120 young people selected to represent "the exceptional service of Canadian youth towards a smart and caring nation".

CAR

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