Burke Lake Park held a Winter Wonderland festival these past weekends as a fun event for families to come out and enjoy. The festival was operated on December 7th, 8th, 14th, and 15th from 12pm-5pm each day.

There was a $20.00 fee to get in but the tickets included access to snacks, drinks, rides, and activities.

The festival featured two main attractions which were a train ride and a carousel. The train ride, named the Holiday Express, took riders around the park while they got to view the holiday decorations and lights. “I thought the train ride was great,” said sophomore Danny Tran. “I got to ride it for free because I was a volunteer.”

A fun activity that many kids enjoyed doing was making candles. They repeated a process of dipping a wick into their desired colored wax and then water until they reached their desired candle size. “My favorite part of the festival was seeing the different candles the kids were able to make,” student volunteer Kushmita Kaur said.

Besides being a social event for community members, the festival was also an opportunity for students to earn service hours for their classes.

Students who volunteered were assigned various jobs from dressing in holiday costumes for the kids to manning the hot drinks station. “I helped supervise children whilst they they made candles indoors,” sophomore Kenneth Anderson said.

Tran, who was another student volunteer, was given the task of roaming the park as a costume character to greet and interact with the families. “I was walking around in a penguin costumes saying hi to everyone,” Tran said.

At the end of the day, families were able to leave the festival with unforgettable memories and a wonderful experience, and the student volunteers left with the satisfaction of helping others. “It felt good knowing that I was able to help my community,” Kaur said.