This year marks the 45th annual celebration in Sault Sainte Marie, ON known as Bon Soo.  Bon Soo is a week long carnival held every year in February which is a remnant of French Canadian culture, tracing its roots back to the Montreal Carnivale.  The original concept of a Sault Sainte Marie winter carnival was initiated by local businessman, Henry Bullock.  Henry was familiar with the Quebec Winter Carnival and its success.  He felt that it was a perfect solution for Sault residents to alleviate the monotony of the long winter months.  Plans for this event began in 1962, but the first carnival was not a reality until February of 1964.  Over the 44 year’s of the carnivals existence, the original concept has remained in place.  Even today, individual groups, organizations, or businesses organize 60% of the events.  Once the carnival became organized, they decided that it needed a mascot.  A local artist named Ken McDougall was hired to create such a character.   His creation became the ever popular mascot of the winter carnival Mr. Bon Soo.  The name “Bon Soo” (Good Soo) was chosen for the character based off of a contest to name the event and the mascot.  The winner of the event was Donald Norman, then a 10 year old student at Parkland Public School. 

This year’s Bon Soo begins on Friday February 1, and ends on Sunday February 10.  The opening ceremonies are too held at the Roberta Bondar Park and Pavilion area starting at 6 pm.  These events include a Zero Gravity circus, Arch Fire Trio, and Stillwell, a tribute to Johnny Cash presented by Algoma Steel.  Free Tim Hortons hot chocolate will be available, and there will also be fireworks sponsored by OLG.  Many other events for the day are scheduled.  Everyday during Bon Soo brings almost a dozen things for people of the community and visitors to participate in.  Other events that are to be going on during Bon Soo are a concert by recording artist Michelle Wright held on February 2, at 8pm in the Steelback Centre, the Agawa Canyon snow train, also taking place on that Saturday, and the Polar Bear swim held on Sunday the 10 at 2pm in Bellevue Park.  Attending Bon Soo is a great way for students, visitors, and people of the Sault Sainte Marie community to come together and celebrate the heritage of Sault Sainte Marie Ontario.  This information is available on the Bon Soo website, for more information about the Bon Soo carnival and events you can go to its website at www.bonsoo.on.ca.

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