10th Birthday: a successful anniversary celebration, fundraiser for water park

The cheers and screams of delight echoed through the Ritzville City Park on Saturday, July 28, as approximately 300 people joined together to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Ritzville Water Park.

The Adams County Parks and Recreation District No. 4 hosted the event and the preliminary reports show the event raised $3,400, minus the cost of expenses.

A selection of games spread through the majority of the park and an ongoing silent auction located inside the gazebo provided the main entertainment throughout the afternoon. The selection of silent auction items ranged from hair products to coffee essentials to school supplies.

The highest selling auction item was a complete outdoor patio set donated by Shear Hair Design. The patio set sold for $275 and the next highest was a family swim pass for 2013, donated by Adams Automotive and Jakes Café.

“It wasn’t just about fundraising; it was about celebrating the pool and what it does for the community,” Angalina Boettcher explained.

Children participating in the games in the park rotated between a water walk, fishing game, ping pong toss, boat races and paintball water balloon toss. The games lasted the entire afternoon and until each station ran out of prizes to award the participants.

The paintball water balloon toss proved to be the most popular and participants had hay bales to use as shields. At least two people competed throughout the afternoon, and when the water balloon supply ran out, squirt gun water fights began.

All of the games provided entertainment for youth of all ages as all of the games could be modified to allow young children to participate. Each game had different prizes because the coordinators of each game purchased all of the prizes at different locations.

During the celebration, free cupcakes were distributed to all in attendance and were made for the birthday party of the water park.

The water park filled with patrons and during the pool Olympics, the deck overflowed with eager participants. The Olympics rotated between individual and team events, and all the winners in the individual contests received a prize.

“There was so many people at the pool watching and cheering on their kids, it was a great moment,” Boettcher said.

The most popular game in the pool was the cannonball competition, which was the final Olympic game hosted at the pool. All of the children had a chance to participate before the adults took to the diving board to compete against each other.

The water park had 200 admissions to the pool on Saturday and 50 people participated in the pool Olympics.

A barbeque dinner complete with traditional summer side dishes ended the event. The Greenside Cafe catered the dinner and fed 94 individuals.

“A major goal of the event was to celebrate the Water Park and the memories that are made there. In this we were a success, as seen in the smiles on kid’s faces and the last grand cheers heard throughout the park and pool,” the coordinators of the event said.

All of the funds raised at the event are being used to help repair the alligator in the Ritzville Water Park. Any remaining funds go to the replacement of the small slide in the deep end of the pool.