'Everybody's out here enjoying winter': Snoball carnival celebrates 20 years in West Broadway

West Broadway residents celebrated the 20th anniversary of a beloved winter festival this weekend.

It was the return of in-person festivities at the West Broadway Snoball Winter Carnival.

"The last two years have been virtual, but yeah we've been doing this for 20 years now," said Kelly Frazer, executive director of the West Broadway Community Organization.

"We're just really glad to be back in person and gathering as a community," she said.

Frazer said the carnival is meant to get the entire neighbourhood involved. Activities included dog sled rides, skating, tobogganing, and photo ops with a yeti.  

"It's just about getting together as a community and having low-barrier access, everything's free and everybody's out here enjoying winter," Frazer said.

She added it is also an opportunity to celebrate some of West Broadway's hardest working residents.

The "Golden Shovel" and "Golden Trowel" awards were given out at the event. "These are both awards that recognize volunteerism within the communities … golden trowel is a youth award," said Frazer.

She said volunteers are a big part of what they do. "We can't have events like this without those kind of volunteers in the community, so they are very, very important to the work we do."

The carnival ran until 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Frazer said it was great to see everyone getting together for their annual community photo.

"West Broadway is an extremely diverse neighbourhood … you see everything from young people, families, seniors, its great! Really, everybody comes out to enjoy the Snoball."