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Brazen thieves steal critical Severn Winterfest structures

'This is just petty and hurtful,' official says of theft from ODAS Park grounds over the past few days

When the Orillia Winter Carnival was abruptly cancelled last year, many winter enthusiasts were heart-broken.

Thankfully, dozens up people stepped up to create the Severn Winterfest, a grass-roots, completely volunteer-driven event that took over ODAS Park last winter.

It took many, many hours of meetings, tremendous efforts behind the scenes and a lot of work to pull off the inaugural event last January.

While some may have thought it didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of succeeding, it did just that.

In fact, people loved it; many believe ODAS Park is the ideal venue for the event, with much more space and potential than the waterfront home of the former Orillia event.

Organizers have already committed to a second, bigger and better Severn Winterfest this coming January.

However, over the course of the past few days, the volunteer-led group has been left despondent by the actions of some brazen thieves.

Sometime between last Saturday and Thursday, two large wooden forms were stolen from ODAS Park. (They are pictured).

Those forms were custom-built - by volunteers - to serve as the critical, unseen infrastructure for the snow fort and for the popular snow castle.

"Our grounds have locked gates, so someone put some work into disassembling these and taking them," said an ODAS Park official.

"We are a non-profit organization, and this is just petty and hurtful."

If you have seen these forms or know anything about their whereabouts, please called the ODAS Park office at 705-325-0353 or email them, [email protected]


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Dave Dawson

About the Author: Dave Dawson

Dave Dawson is community editor of OrilliaMatters.com
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