Success of C3’s inaugural Winter Fest sparks plans for more winter activities

By Rob Paul

The third time was, in fact, the charm for C3 head coach Barrie Shepley and the rest of the C3 team.

The Caledon-based Canadian Cross Training Club is headquartered at James Dick Quarry in Caledon Village and is known for pristine training and running community events.

Usually the winter is more of a down time for C3, but Shepley, C3's head coach and a former Olympic coach, thought it would be a missed opportunity if his team didn't take advantage of their space this winter.

That's how C3's inaugural Winter Fest came to be on February 20, the third date they had set after the pandemic had forced them to reschedule twice.

The biggest positive from the rescheduling was the weather they lucked into on Sunday.

“It was initially the middle of January, but the pandemic shut it down and we pushed it to February, but the numbers were still capped for the amount of people who could come together,” said Shepley. “But we still had a desire from stakeholders for it to occur and were a pretty determined bunch so rather than cancelling it we pushed it out to Sunday. As is the case with outdoor events, you get lucky or unlucky based on the weather, we got lucky. We had a spectacular snowfall on the Thursday and Friday which gave us fresh new snow and a perfect Sunday afternoon with it only being about two degrees. We were really pleased because you never know with Mother Nature.”

This wasn't a spur of the moment idea for Shepley and C3, it was a calculated decision to see what type of response they would get from the community and whether there's an appetite for more winter activities in Caledon. 

“There were a few objectives with it,” he said. “One was that winter is damn long and lots of Canadians don't get outside, but you've got to embrace the culture. There's snow and cold and ice for a good chunk of the year, so we wanted to help people embrace winter. The second part was that so much of what we've become known for at the quarry is summer swimming and paddling, and here we are with this spectacular space, but we haven't really utilized it much in the winter. There was a conscious decision amongst our board and our coaches to put our stake in the ground going forward, more so for next year, that we intend to do more activities all winter long in the future. Winter Fest was really about celebrating winter and using this great resource for more than half the year by opening it for snowshoeing, ice skating, and tobogganing.”

The day couldn't have been more of a success in Shepley's eyes, and he views it as a triumph of community-based organizations working together to bring entertainment to residents while promoting fun and physical activity for kids.

“We brought in a very respected ice sculpture guy who brings a 600-pound block of ice and with his tools carves out whatever you want—we had a polar bear done,” said Shepley. “Part of it was to have some visual activity for people who might not be as physical. He worked away on that for a couple hours while we had toboggan races going on and we brought in 25 pairs of snowshoes to give people the chance to try that. We had a couple volunteers work hard to clear a chunk of ice for people to skate on and that was fun. Of course, you also have to have some classic Tim Horton's, so we had tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. 

“It turned out to be beyond what we could have hoped for, and we did it in conjunction with a couple of groups—the Caledon Village Association and Caledon Fairgrounds teamed up with our C3 gang. It was a lovely coming together of a whole bunch of community minded organizations to see if we have something here that we might want to do more with Saturday morning toboggan races or skates going forward. The answer was a resounding, ‘absolutely!'”

People loved being outdoors and loved the location, he notes, adding you could easily see in the future this being a place to host ice sculpture contests or speed skating contests. All of it could be happening because it's a beautiful and safe environment for kids. 

C3 runs events throughout the warmer months and Shepley says they're excited to get those back on track with a big one coming up that includes a special guest, but the success of Winter Fest has also motivated them to ensure they're running activities all year.

“We'll have our Big Kids of Steel race back on May 29—the kids and adults' triathlon we've been running for the last 20 years,” said Shepley. “The pool has been closed the last two years, but we have the date set for this year. We've got one of my old athletes, the legend Simon Whitfield, coming and he's a four-time Olympian who won the gold in Sydney. We started the race to honour him after his Sydney win and he's actually coming out for the event, so we're excited to have him race and handout medals to the kids. We're excited we can now expand our season of doing things as we add the winter fun activities to what we've already been doing.”

If not for the support of businesses in Caledon, C3's inaugural Winter Fest might not have been as successful so Shepley tips his cap to those in the community coming together for a common cause. 

“It was really a trial balloon to see if people in the community would be interested,” he said. “It was free and assisted significantly by senior Caledon companies like Benson Steel, Royal Containers, Kinetico, Nuvo Iron, and RA Tech. And without the James Dick organization, we could not have done this great day. “I'm extremely pleased because it's an idea that could have been let go of twice. Part of our objective at C3 is to be a year-round community conduit to active living.”