By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
NEW SWEDEN, Maine — Penny Johnson used to attend the Snö Festival in New Sweden as a kid, so it’s no surprise she brought her own little ones to the annual winter carnival event on March 8. Johnson comes back every year simply because it’s fun.
“It’s fun for the kids, they enjoy it and they have a great time,” she said, “and the community gets together too, so you get to see people you haven’t seen in a long time.”
Compared to Snö Festivals of past, Johnson said the weather was good but “the wind could be a little less.”
New Sweden native Lacie Turnbull returned to the Snö Festival for the first time in four years, and her family was clearly having a great time sledding and just tumbling around in the snow — adults and children alike.
“You have to play (in the snow),” she emphasized with a big smile, “You have to show the kids how to have a good time.”
She competed in an event herself — the Sled Boat Race with her mom, Bonnie Bouchard. They came in third out of four contestants. Bouchard said she must have been holding Turnbull back.
Bouchard has also been coming to the winter event since she was a kid, and even though there isn’t much serious racing as there was historically, “it’s awesome,” she said.
In fact, Bouchard competed in one more race before going home from the Snö Festival at the New Sweden School; Bouchard and her mother, Millie Forbes, competed in the Adult Snowshoe Race.
Clearly a family tradition, 79-year-old Forbes attended Snö Festivals consistently when she was younger, but the March 8 race was her first time competing — and it was her first time on snowshoes. Laughing and smiling from start to finish — despite a brief gravitational error — it’s safe to say that Forbes’ first race was a joyful success, even if she didn’t win.
