Canada Day bouncy castle recovered

Craig Bakay | Jul 11, 2018

The big blue and gray bouncy castle that adorned Oso Beach on Canada Day has been recovered, said District 3 Rec Committee chair Lesley Smith-Merrigan.

Bouncy castles like this one are in great demand on Canada Day and picking them up often becomes an exercise in logistics.

So, when Orbital Talent owner Brian Wilson asked Smith-Merrigan if she thought it would be OK to leave it on the beach overnight, she of course said yes. Wilson would have somebody pick it up Monday.

Only, it turned out not to be OK.

Sometime after the fireworks, the castle disappeared and was nowhere to be found. That initiated a Facebook campaign to get it back (with 300 shares) and luckily “a gentleman and his son who were walking along the shore spotted it near the helipad,” Smith-Merrigan said.

“Thanks to the Central Frontenac firefighters who went down and recovered it.”

The castle weighs in at over 300 pounds, and plus it was staked into the ground, she said.

“Our speculation is that whoever took it tied a line to it and towed it behind a boat,” she said. “Then it probably got to be too much for them and they let it go.”

Smith-Merrigan said they’ve had a long-standing relationship with Wilson and Orbital Talent and would have been prepared to replace the castle if it came to that.

“We were going to be on the hook for it, but luckily it was found,” she said. “We don’t think there was damage, but if there is we’ll work something out with Brian.

“If there is damage, it’ll be a lot cheaper to repair than it would have been to buy a new one.”