The History Of Snowflake Days:
The Coon Rapids Snowflake Days began in 1964 as a Jaycee project. It was conceived of the notion that that the City of Coon Rapids needed a civic celebration that the entire community could participate in. All of the neighboring communities had summer celebrations so Coon Rapids thought they would try something in the winter so as not to compete with their neighbors. By 1968, the celebration had grown enough to require broader sponsorship so the Snowflake Association was created. The celebration has had a broad range of civic leaders involved over the years, both as President of the Association and as Marquis. The Marquis currently serves as a sort of celebrity grand puba.
We have had many events over the years, some have come and gone and some left and came back. The Junior Royalty Program has been a part of the celebration since the 1970's, went away for a short time and was revived in the early 1990's. The program is now stronger than ever. The Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast at Epiphany Church has also been around since the 70's. The Softball in the Snow and Pee Wee Hockey Tournaments come and go depending on whether someone steps forward to oversee the events. The Dog Sled races have been a part of our celebration for the last 25 years or so. The Minnesota Malamute Club does a marvelous job with these. Matter of fact, in 2003 the City of Coon Rapids built them a new track near the Compost Site which they are able to use year round for practices and events. There have been a few years with no snow so the races had to be cancelled.
Thanks to the generosity of the Coon Rapids Lions Club, we were able to add a new event a few years ago - the Children's Medallion Hunt. Lion Mike Peterson initiated this event and when Mike passed away suddenly prior to the 2004 hunt, the committee named the event after him and it is now known as the Mike Peterson Memorial Children's Medallion Hunt. Now that the word is out that there are bikes as prizes for the winners we have more participants than ever. One of the winners last year wanted to go right over to the store and get his bike!! It really did go well and we hope to expand on this event as it grows and offer not only the hot chocolate the Lions provide, which goes over very well, but also include other concessions as well.
There are two categories for this event which are ages 5-8, who do a scramble hunt and ages 9-12 who are actually given clues to the hunt. Let us not forget the crown jewel of our celebration, Wells Fargo Bank Kids Day at the Dam. The Anoka County Parks personnel are instrumental in making this event successful. This is the 2nd year that Wells Fargo Bank has sponsored the event and provided a large, heated tent for activities for the children.
The parade is held that day followed by many different activities, some of which have included bonfires, snowshoeing, children's crafts, hot chocolate, concessions, face painting, story time. The committee is always working very hard to find new events to add to our lineup. Some possibilities would be horseshoes in the snow, bowling tournament, spaghetti dinner, chili feed, archery tournament, ice fishing contest, band concerts, cribbage tournament, cross country ski tournament.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to incorporate any of these events into future celebrations, we'd love to hear from them. Of course, we would also be interested in finding someone to host the event. Our committee is very small and we are just not able to do it all. Volunteerism is the thread that holds a community together and allows young and old alike to make a difference in other people's lives. I believe the Snowflake Days celebration to be a good tool to allow this to happen.
