Even though the Peninsula Winter Games haven’t seen typical winter weather for the last three years, the 40th Peninsula Winter Games was still about the kids. The slogan adopted by the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce “It’s About the Kids!!” when they stepped up to coordinate the popular cabin fever prevention event still stands. At last weekends festivities over 1,000 corn dogs and free game bags with goodies were passed out to kids of all ages according to Melodie Allen, events coordinator for the Soldotna Chamber, “I was really impressed with the turn out, this is my first year organizing it for the Chamber and it’s been a blast,” said the former owner of Odie’s Deli, “I remember bringing my kids to the Winter Games and how much fun it was back when there were ice slides and sculptures and all but this year I truly learned about the community effort, sponsors and volunteer hours it takes to make all these fun activities happen for the families that come out to have fun,” she told the Dispatch. Activities commenced at 10:00am with the official Kids Monopoly Tournament and when the final token had passed cashier and collected two hundred dollars, 11 year old Blake Lewis was declared this year’s Monopoly champion and went home with the prizes to prove it. Then at 1:30pm hundreds of kids packed into the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex for some rapid Bingo action where many kids became winners and went home with great prizes. Throughout the day on the ice Kenai Peninsula Hockey Assoc. (KPHA) paired up teams for the annual KPHA Stanley Chrysler Cup invitational tournament, with games going happening at the Sports Complex and the Kenai Hockey Rink. In the Squirt Division taking 1st was Team Zurfluh, in the Pee Wee Division in 1st – AHA Narwals and for the Girls U16: 1st – PAHA Pioneers and 2nd – Alaska All Stars.
Simultaneous booths upstairs at the rink offered kids free face painting by local SoHi artists along with a chance to build their very own wooden helicopter with a Home Depot volunteer. Fred Myer volunteers helped kids decorate their own cookies and folks from the Challenger Learning Center Alaska assisted kids taking up the challenge to engineer a device sturdy enough to suspend a marshmallow using only 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 yard of string and 1 yard of tape. While outside volunteers helped kids learn how to use a kick sled and The Study’s Amazing Race had kids filling garbage bags with the little snow that was in the parking lot and Jumpin’ Junction had kids jumping for joy in their inflatable jump house. “Also outside kids loaded up on the Diamond M Ranch & Resort hay wagon for a fun hayride with singing and laughing. Then kids headed over to the Caribou Cabin Hoppers snow machine rides, which turned out to 6-wheeler rides that everyone loved and had a blast going safely through the woods, what a blast for the kids,” said Allen. The 40th Peninsula Winter Games concluded with a spectacular fireworks display that lit-up the afternoon darkness without having to keep the kids up late to enjoy. “We are so proud and thankful for all our sponsors and volunteers that made this year so great, the Peninsula Winter Games can’t happen without them and we look forward to having some even better winter weather to get out in next year,” said Melodie.
