Plenty of activities planned around Kamloops for 2019 Family Day

Feb 16, 2019 | 8:40 AM

KAMLOOPS —With Family Day coming up to finish off the long weekend, activities and entertainment will be held throughout the Kamloops area for people to take part in.

Monday marks the first Family Day that will coincide with the rest of Canada and President’s Day in the United States.

Among the snow amenities near Kamloops, Harper Mountain owner Norm Daburger says they expect to host families looking to get in some tubing, skiing, or snowboarding, with more than 20 centimetres of snow coming down over the last week.

“So if you come skiing on Saturday or Sunday, and you buy a regular lift ticket, you will get half price on Monday when you bring your lift ticket back.”

Despite the date change for Family Day this year, making B.C line up with the rest of Canada and U.S President’s Day, folks at Harper Mountain don’t expect visitor numbers to take a hit. 

“For us, we deal mostly with local skiers so it doesn’t really matter what day it’s on, what time of year, as long it’s in the winter.”

While it’s sure to be busy on the slopes this weekend, families can also check out activities held in Kamloops at the Tournament Capital Centre. 

City of Kamloops Community Events Coordinator Dewi Evans says they’ll have an event running in the fieldhouse from 10 a.m to 2 p.m on Monday. 

“So we’ll have about 50 community booths here. So you can do arts and crafts, try some new sports, we’ll have some science experiments going on, and we’ve got live entertainment going on throughout.”

Evans says over the years, the facility has hosted between 3,000 to 5,000 visitors on family day, and this time around they expect the 7th annual event to be no less. 

“So if people are familiar with the TCC, 5,000 people in causes parking issues. So I would say if you can, car share. If you can get a bus or any other way to make your way down here, I’d recommend that because it is a lot of people trying to get in this building.”

The city is also encouraging people to think about sustainability and bring their own bags to the free event.  

“There will be a lot of giveaways and little tokens for the kids, the families to take away, so I would recommend you bring some bags ready for those things because we will have plenty here for you.”

And that’s not all, Evans says the Canada Games Pool will be holding a toonie swim from 1-4 p.m on Monday, and downtown, there will be a Family Stick and Puck event held at the Sandman Centre from 10 a.m to 12 p.m.

Details on the TCC event can be found here.