ESTEVAN — The Roche Percee Recreation Site and Campground's board invited the community for its second annual Commemorative Family Fun Day at the park on Aug. 26.
A warm and sunny day at the park featured tractor hay rides and yard games, candy kabobs, treats and hotdogs, sparkle tattoos and a fishing game. New for this year was a splash field.
"This year, we built a giant splash pad. It's a shallow pool, four-six inches deep, large area, 24 by 44. It was just the large area full of shallow water to run around, splash and play, and keep cool in the sun," explained Thomas Howard, who is the president of the Roche Percee Recreation Site and Campground board.
"We didn't go with the bouncy castles this year, but not saying that we won't bring them back. We're just trying to mix things up. We don't want to do the same thing every year, we don't want it to get boring," he added.
About 160-170 people attended the Family Fun Day in the park, located by Highway 39 in the Roche Percee area. Some of them were there for the first event last year, others were regular campground users, and some were new this year.
Howard noted that it took a few months of planning and then a few weeks of active work for about six volunteers to put this free event together. They wanted to do something for the people in the area and felt that organizing a family day in the park would serve their goal.
"The park is run on a volunteer basis and the board is charitable non-profit. And this is one of the ways that we are able to give back a little bit to the community as an appreciation for the yearly services," Howard said.
He said that this season they've seen higher use of their campground and they keep working on improvements.
"This season was good. The campground was busier this season than it's been in the past. We keep getting more interest in seasonal sites, so we're filling up at a definite steady pace. And it all goes into helping our future developments," Howard said.
"This year, we developed a couple more campsites that are available for rent."
The campground has 15 campsites and three picnic sites, and the board plans to keep growing its offering.
Howard added that they were grateful for the support for their event and to everyone who came out, and they look forward to continuing to serve the southeast.
"It was a good time had by all who came out and enjoyed the afternoon," Howard said. "And I want to say thanks to a couple of local businesses that helped us out, Southern Plains Co-op for providing the food, Weatherford for providing the barbecue to cook said food, and Steam-Est Industries for helping us out with porta potties and providing water for the splash pad."
