The township held its COVID-modified winter carnival on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. While snow sculptures and the formal ball could not be held, residents were able to experience a break from the winter tedium with a series of virtual and distanced events across the municipality.

The 18 km stretch of Ski Vent Clic trails around Vankleek Hill were free from Friday to Sunday. Volunteers were hard at work during the periods of snow across the weekend to ensure the trails remained well groomed for visitors.

For those who wanted to stay inside with the kids, a bilingual magic show was performed over Zoom and YouTube. Twenty families from Champlain registered to interact with Majinx during the show on a Zoom call, which was then uploaded to YouTube for everyone to see.

Children also entered a colouring in competition to decorate a penguin enjoying the snow. Reagan Hall, 11, Catherine Leroux, 8, Marik Sauvé, 5, and Aubree Boyd, 2, were named the winners of the contest.

Meanwhile, those who miss warmer weather may not have to wait much longer. According to Ouimet Farms, Vankleek Hill Victor the groundhog did not see his shadow last Tuesday, and predicted an early spring. In the meantime, Environment Canada expected more wintry conditions in the second half of the season than the milder conditions experienced in December and January.