Meet Winnie in the park

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/08/2002 (8567 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For three English friends of Winnie the Pooh, their grand adventure in Winnipeg will lead them smack in the centre of Assiniboine Park tomorrow.

After years of telling her young daughters about how mommy hails from the same place as their favourite bear, former Winnipegger Angie Marinou has brought them to her home town for a much-anticipated visit with the chubby little cubby and his 100 Acre Wood friends, during Pooh Friendship Day Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m..

“It’s like a little bit of history, my history,” explains Marinou, winding up a four-week family visit here. “It’s a connection we want to keep with the kids.”

Pooh Bear is popular across the pond, says Marinou, listing off the toys, bedding and other licensed items her family owns. But for seven hours tomorrow, the bear of very little brain will bask in the glory of his ever-faithful fans for the third consecutive year as tens of thousands of his friends are expected to flock to Assiniboine Park for the Disney Canada-sponsored one-day love-in of all things Pooh.

Immortalized by the books and poems of writer A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh was named after a black bear at the London Zoo brought from Canada by Winnipeg veterinarian Lieut. Harry Colebourn at the start of the First World War. Christened Winnie in honour of Colebourn’s home town, the orphaned bear became a favourite of Milne’s son Christopher Robin, who named his stuffed bear after the zoo animal. Milne’s stories about the adventures of Winnie and his friends were later made into movies and video by Disney.

The fictional bear’s connection to Winnipeg will be strengthened with the unveiling of a Friendship Day flag at the 11 a.m. opening ceremonies. The flag includes nine designs depicting friendship drawn by Canadian children, including four from Winnipeg — Hannah Pajic, age 4, Carlynne Millns, 6, and a pair of 12-year-olds, Larissa Peck and Shantel Ryback.

Two copies of the flag will fly on either side of the Lyric Theatre stage throughout the day, and remain in Winnipeg as a permanent reminder of Pooh’s gentle nature and relationship to this city, says Donna Hicks of the non-profit Partners in the Park, one of the sponsors of the event.

“The day is really all about friendship. It’s remembering who your friends are, and being a friend,” she says.

Named the world’s ambassador of friendship by the United Nations in 1997, Winnie the Pooh will be spreading his good cheer in person to thousands of his friends from Friendly Manitoba. Mascot versions of the silly old bear and his pals Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet will be at the park to hug and pose with big and little kids who pass through their ever-popular tent.

Early-birds at the festival can avoid last year’s two-hour-plus endurance test to see the characters by picking up a shortcut ticket from the meet-and-greet tent. This ticket indicates a 15-minute window later in the day when they can meet the mascots. During that time, ticket-holders enter a shortcut line, which will alternate with people from the main line, says Friendship Day organizer Allison Greer of Disney Canada. People will still have to wait, but can enjoy other venues until the time indicated on their tickets.

“Our goal is guest satisfaction. We want everyone to see the characters, but there’s so many people who come out,” she says.

Those in line can listen to the wall-to-wall entertainment at the Lyric, where family entertainers Sharon & Bram (the touring version of Sharon, Lois & Bram) will keep the audience singing and the show moving in their emcee role. The all-star line-up includes a return appearance by Vancouver-based singer and puppeteer Norman Foote, East Coast country singer Terry Kelly, Juno-winner Deborah Cox, and Riders in the Sky, the band featured in the Disney movie Toy Story 2. About 30 young dancers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan perform at the four Disney stage shows, directed by Toronto’s Sean Debidin.

For those who prefer roaming the (slightly less than) 100 Hundred Acre Woods north of the mainstage, Pooh’s friends are waiting to help guests make a friendship bracelet, learn to draw favourite Disney characters, blow bubbles or play in the sandbox.

New this year are a Play-Doh tent, with lots of equipment to mould the squishy stuff, and a picture-framing station, where guests can embellish a frame featuring a smiling photo of everyone’s favourite bear, a Pooh version of the retro party game Twister, and a cookie-decorating station.

Of course, there’s always some Pooh to take home too, with loads of licensed clothes, toys, and backpacks available for sale on-site, including about 20 items featuring the Friendship Day logo, as well as a tentful of computers and gaming stations to test Disney software and video games.

Partners in the Park, the non-profit organization which runs Lyric and the Pavilion Gallery, will display the oval painting of Winnie with a honey pot by artist Ernest Shepard, illustrator for the original Winnie the Pooh books. T-shirts and posters of the painting also will be available.

Although this $500,000 party, put on by Disney and a dozen or so local sponsors, has a definite commercial side to it, that doesn’t lessen the appeal for those like Marinou who love this hunny of a bear.

“He’s happy, he’s friendly, he always tries to fix up stuff, even though he muddles around,” she says of her fascination with the silly old bear. “He tries to get along with everyone.”

brenda@suderman.com

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Entertainment schedule

11 a.m. Opening ceremonies with Sharon & Bram

11:30 Hunny-Riffic stage show

12 noon Norman Foote

12:30 p.m. Terry Kelly

1:15 Friends Forever stage show

1:45 Sharon & Bram

2:00 Norman Foote

2:30 Hunny-Riffic stage show

3:00 Terry Kelly

3:30 Friends Forever stage show

4:00 Riders in the Sky

5:00 Deborah Cox

5:50 Closing ceremonies

Bus it to the bear free

Three free shuttle services will leave regularly from park-and-ride locations near Assiniboine Park.

A shuttle will leave every eight minutes from Kapyong Barracks at Kenaston and Grant and Canadian Mennonite University, 500 Shaftesbury Blvd. Buses will leave every five minutes from Polo Park, and the Pooh Express picks up passengers along express stops on Portage Avenue between The Forks and Deer Lodge Centre.