Julien St-Jean
Portage du Fort July 31, 2021
Harbour Square Park was the site of games and a sand castle building competition last Saturday when the non-profit of the same name held a fundraiser fun day.
The fundraiser featured a variety of games, such as oversized tic tac toe, ring toss, rocket toss and more. Prizes were available to be won from a raffle and through the sand castle competition.
According to Harbour Square Park director Bob Tovee, the group has recently started to host events to give the community a place to get outside and for families to gather.
“We wanted to do something to help get the kids outside,” said Tovee. “But it’s not just for the kids, it’s for everybody.”
Prizes and supplies for the day’s festivities were donated by many local businesses from Portage du Fort and Shawville. Lunches were offered for free, but attendees had the option to donate to the park to support renovations to the area.
Tovee said that after the floods of 2019, sand had washed up on the town’s shore. Harbour Square Park took advantage of this through the creation of a beach area “that the town can be proud of.”
The group began cleaning up the beach last May, which Tovee said had been littered with wires, signs and all sorts of other pieces of metal. Since then, they’ve also added picnic tables which were donated by different community members. Recently, they’ve started to host events.
“It’s lovely to see it cleaned up and able to be used,” said Angie Beausoleil, who attended the Saturday’s event with her family. “It’s nice to come out and be around people. And to not have to travel out of town to do it.”
Tovee added that in recent years, the town hasn’t had many events or attractions that bring people to the region. “We’ve been kind of dry for the last few years,” he said. “There used to be a lot more here.”
He hopes that as the group renovates Harbour Square Park, it will not only offer a space for locals to spend time together, but also draw in tourists who will spend the day in town in the different shops.
The group has been run entirely by volunteers from the town. Tovee said all of the committee’s volunteers have been offering ideas and looking to do whatever they can. “We had people show up this morning and ask ‘what can I do?’”
The group has many plans in store for the area. They hope to continue to build it up and host events when they can. In the fall, they’re hoping to hold a Halloween gathering at the park.
“I think it’s bringing back a sense of community,” said Tovee. “We’re going to carry on and see where it goes.”
