A scooter festival is rolling back into Chatham-Kent, this time with several new safety precautions in place.
The 2020 Chatham-Kent Scooter Festival and Competition is set to take place on October 3 at the Chatham Skatepark.
Presented by the Chatham Kinsmen Club, this marks the second year that the event will be held. According to co-chair Janet Raddatz, 2019's event was a huge success with 41 kids registered from across Chatham-Kent and several nearby cities including Windsor and London.
Raddatz said this year's festival will have several changes in place to adhere to COVID-19 safety regulations. According to Raddatz, this includes making sure there are fewer than 100 people in the event area, not having any food available for sale, placing social distancing markers on the ground, and providing extra sanitation where needed.
"I don't think we're going to have any problem holding up all of these measures because everybody is just so happy that it's still able to proceed," said Raddatz. "Public health, police and the bylaw department have worked really hard with us to make that were aware of all of the regulations so that we can proceed safely."
With the province recently introducing stricter limits on gathering sizes across Ontario, Raddatz said organizers of the event worked closely with the municipality to ensure that the scooter festival still fit the criteria of what was allowed to be held. According to Raddatz, because the festival is being hosted by an organization, it was not impacted by the province's new limits on private and unmonitored events.
She said that was only one of the moments of uncertainty that the team faced while organizing the event.
"I can't tell you how many times we thought we would have to just not hold the event," said Raddatz. "At the beginning of the summer, the skate park wasn't even open. When it did open, we thought the kids wouldn't have enough time to practice. Then we didn't know if we'd have enough grant money and it was just COVID, COVID, COVID."
Participation for the event is open to youths up to the age of 18. Registration costs $15 in advance and $20 the day of the event. Raddatz said the best way to register is to visit the Chatham-Kent Scooter Festival and Competition Eventbrite page. More details can also be found on the event's social media pages.
Funding for the festival was provided by Home James, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent Together CK grant program, and Scooters Canada. Raddatz said that Scooters Canada has provided several prizes including gift cards and scooter parts.
"We are really excited to put together this event because the kids have lost so much already," she said. "They've lost their baseball, they lost soccer, schools look completely different, they didn't get to have their [graduations] and their proms...so we're so excited to have this event and know that we can do it safely."
