ALBERTON – All the fun winter has to offer will be available to the community Saturday, as the Promoting Excellence in Alberton Kids Foundation holds its first winter festival.

The festival will be arranged like a carnival, with different booths set up for each game or activity. Kids will receive a punch card to take to each booth. According to Rosie Sibert, one of the organizers of the festival, if the card is filled the owner gets a free bake sale item.

“[It’s to] kind of encourage everyone to do all the activities,” she said.

Some of the outdoor festivities will include snowshoe races, snow sculpture contests, games of accuracy with snowballs and a bonfire for roasting marshmallows. However, with a trend of clear weather and pleasant temperatures, there may not be much snow to play in.

If no snow is available, or not enough to use for activities, the foundation will still provide outside entertainment. According to Sibert, there are a number of alternative projects and games planned for warmer weather.

“We’re hoping for the snow,” said Sibert. “But whether we get it or not is not going to affect us.”

If people need to go indoors, there will be activities inside the community center, such as board games, stations to make paper snowflakes and vendors with knitted items. There will also be indoor carnival games, like bowling, a ball toss and a candy count.

There will also be a photo booth set up where people can get their pictures taken. According to Sibert, the foundation worked with Jessie Baldwin, the Alberton Elementary School art teacher, and had the kids make crafts to be used as props in the pictures. These will give the photos a unique, fun twist to commemorate the event.

“When the kids come to get their photos taken…they’ll be using props they made in school,” said Sibert. “Little hats, goggles or ski masks or mittens…to make fun pictures.”

However, it will not all be fun and games, there will be some educational activities as well. There is expected to be a booth set up to teach how to spin wool – The lessons will cover the whole process of making wool and preparing it to be spun. There will also be a discussion about hypothermia and how to prevent its onset.

Food will also be available at the event. The PEAK Foundation has formatted some of it as a potluck and request the community bring their favorite dishes. The bonfire may also have hot dogs available. Plates and dinnerware will be provided by the PEAK Foundation.

Any donations gathered at the event will go toward the foundation’s planned Shakespeare in the Park and Shakespeare in the School events in the summer. The goal is to bring Shakespeare’s plays to the schools and help raise the community’s cultural enrichment.

While the festival is targeted more to Alberton kids, surrounding communities are welcome. Sibert said word of the event has been spread to Superior and the Nine Mile area.

Ideas for the festival were gathered through a series of surveys given out at the Alberton schools and around the community. This event is a continuation of the PEAK Foundation’s goal to provide more local activities to the Alberton community.

“You know, improve the quality of the community and the people here,” said Sibert. “[The events will] bring us together.”

The festival will be held at the Alberton Community Center on Saturday, January 25, from 2 to 8 p.m.