When is the last time you’ve seen nearly a hundred kids lining the waterfront in Fort Frances, lost in the joy of fishing and dreams landing “the big one”?
If you were out and about this past Saturday, you might have, but if you weren’t and missed out on it, let me paint you a bit of a picture.
I’ve said nearly a hundred in terms of kids. Sure, but it was probably more than that. It also excludes parents, grandparents, friends, volunteers, well-wishers and curious passersby, all of whom contributed in one way or another to the throngs of people who lined up from Sorting Gap to Harbourage to take part in the Kiwanis Club’s Kids Fishing Derby.
It was a sight to behold, a joyous, raucous, fun-filled event that appealed not only the kids fishing, but also their parents, who could finally get their younglings outside, enjoying the great outdoors. Even the tourists on their way to fishing destinations beyond the town slowed down as they passed to see if maybe they were missing out on a fishing tournament they could be taking part in.
The final results haven’t been shared with us yet, but in the time I was there easily a dozen fish were landed and brought in to be weighed, the first, a northern, only a few minutes, if that, before the starting gun fired, so to speak.
We all too often hear the refrain “there’s nothing to do” being said around town. Compared to other big city centres, Fort Frances can feel quiet, even sleepy, as legend holds that everyone and their dogs vacate the municipality on weekends in the summer to take to the lakes, leaving those without a boat or lakeside property behind.
But I wonder about that “common” knowledge…
When I see a milling crowd of nearly, if not more than, a hundred people at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday in June lined up along the river, I think we may have mistaken the appetite people have in town for weekend events. When I talk to people who are thrilled with the turnout a weekend event aimed at kids had, I think we might be giving up on “nothing to do” too early. Sure, Fort Frances has at times been a bit sleepy, especially when we talk about younger people in particular age groups, but of late, cries of “there’s nothing to do” have rung a bit… hollow.
There is, actually, a lot to do in Fort Frances these days, and more happening with each passing month. We have a regular Trivia Night hosted by a fiercely intelligent and deviously cunning quizmaster (I mean it, the questions at Fort Frances Trivia can be downright mystifying, but always satisfying). We have Music Bingos happening on a near monthly basis, to say nothing of special occasions like Pride. For the beerologists among us, an honest-to-goodness craft brewery scene is bubbling up in town, I will not pardon the pun, and for those who enjoy sobriety, did you know there is an Ultimate Frisbee pickup game that plays in Emo on Mondays at 6:30 p.m.? It might not be in town, but it’s not so distant as to be unavailable to local athletes.
Fort Frances might not be as bustling as it once was, but it is far away from the wasteland so many people think it to be. What is different is that those who want to make a change, those who have an idea for something that will bring people together in trying something new, those people with the spark of an idea that just hasn’t been done here before, are stepping up and making sure that, in the days, months, years to follow, there will be something to do in Fort Frances, there will always be something to do in Fort Frances, as long as the rest of us step up and do our part and continue to support those events.
Otherwise, there really will never be anything to do in Fort Frances, and it will have been our fault.
– Ken Kellar, editor
