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Friday July 10, 2026

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Rivers Sandcastle Contest

By Jessica Coulter

This was the second year for the Rivers Sandcastle Contest held at the Rivers Provincial Park Beach. The contest started with registration at 1pm on July 5, 2026. Castle building began at 1:30pm and ended at 2:30pm. Just one hour to build the best, most deluxe sandcastle your imagination can come up with.

This event was organized by an amazing group of volunteers. Riverdale CDC put in many hours to get everything organized. Kerri Gourlay from Rivers and Area Community Foundation volunteered on the day of the event at the registration tent.

“We were worried that we were going to have to either cancel or postpone the event due to flooding at the beach.

On Tuesday prior to the event, most of the beach area was covered in water. Luckily, the lake levels went down, and Rivers Provincial Park Manager Scott Moore had the new sand re-piled for us, as well as tilled and raked the beach prior to the event on Sunday,” said Lesley Creighton, Riverdale CDC.

This year the contest had six teams enter the Family Category and three individuals enter the Child 10 and under category. Next year the organizers would really like to see some youth entries in the 11 – 18 years category.

Judges were: Community Futures Westman Chairperson - Wayne Kelly, Community Futures Business Development Officer - Kola Oloko, Riverdale Mayor - Heather Lamb, and CDC President - David Creighton.

There were prizes for each category:

Family Category Winners: 1st Place - Team Rivas (Robin, Santi, Sio, & Sara); 2nd Place - Team Meow (Michael, Amanda, Auri & Barrick Hodges); 3rd Place - Team The Crouching Masons (The Crouch Family);

4th Place- Team Gray (Kyle and Grayson Kostesky)Child: 10 & Under Category: 1st Place - Team Transformers (Henry Gustin); 2nd Place - Team Teetaert (Aurora Teetaert)

The idea to have a sandcastle contest was brought to the attention of the CDC by Donna Morken last year. The first year only had youth and child categories and was Sunday morning. There were fewer participants overall the first year, but it wasn’t the warmest of days.

The Riverdale CDC took the feedback they saw online and from participants that day and decided to create a Family Category for this year and move the event to Sunday afternoon, and it was a beautiful warm Sunday afternoon this year, perfect sandcastle building weather.

The CDC applied for a grant through Community Futures Westman and received $3000. Most of the grant money went toward the purchase of a metal picnic table that was donated to Rivers Provincial Park (it is placed down at the beach between the parking lot and beach area), and the rest went toward the cost of the prizes, permit fee, signage, and sand for the event.

Rivers Provincial Park split the cost of the sand with the CDC and arranged to have 10 yards of sand delivered in a pile on the beach for the event. Rivers Super Thrifty staff graciously put the prizes together for winners and donated 24 frisbees to be handed out to participants. CJ's Snack Shack donated ice cream cone vouchers for each child that participated in the event as well.

“Riverdale CDC appreciates everyone that made this an extraordinary event. We look forward to next year's event,” says Creighton.