Saturday February the 18th 2023 was a windy day with dark clouds. It was minus five degrees downtown, and even colder at Muscleman’s Lake, the site of the Stouffville Tiny Seedlings’ annual charity event, Sno Much Fun.  

We arrived at 10am and found the venue deserted; the only people on site were support staff. The arena was all quiet save for the wind rustling flags on steel poles by the road. The ground was slippery with ice because it’d been warm the day before and light rain had become sleet overnight.

Was this frigid hilltop really about to host five hundred children? That was the number of guests for which they’d prepped, and what their coordinator told me they were expecting when we spoke on the phone. Maggie Haze was set to do a Winter Fire Show on stage at 11:45 am and looking around, I doubted there’d be any audience at all.

“Build it and they will come.” Allan is the owner of United Soils and he spoke confidently to assure me that dozens of families would soon appear, He didn’t have time to be properly interviewed because he was busily working to get his attractions in place. An inflatable curling rink was unfurled and blown into shape and there was shuffleboard table and a ring toss game and free balloons. A bonfire blazed in a purpose-built pit on the far side of the field, but the main attraction was a toboggan hill which the ice made hard to climb; another fun challenge for anyone under the age of twelve.

The caterers were the first to arrive and dispensed hot coffee, cookies, and chocolate chip muffins. They set-up shop in a plywood canteen where they kept warm beside vats of hot chocolate. They had chicken soup and dinner rolls too, and all the baked goods were individually wrapped in cellophane which is a holdover from the pandemic and precautions taken to prevent the spread.

I lingered in the canteen and drank warm beverages until the DJ arrived. Jared from Bounce Entertainment is friendly and experienced and he did a great job getting Maggie wired for sound, finding the perfect windsock for her microphone. His audio breathed life into the scene, yet the music he selected seemed out of place. He played the same dance tracks as were popular last July, and the catchy hit singles are songs I associate with boating, the beach, and warm summer nights at the cottage.

Poor Maggie Haze, I lamented her predicament. How will she pull this off? The wind was unrelenting, and the temperature had dropped a few degrees more in the hour since we’d arrived. Although kiddies were now appearing, a few carloads at a time, all of them brought sheik plastic sleds and went straight for the icy hill. How can she make a scene here, at the business end of a clean-fill site in Oak Ridges Moraine. This has to be the hardest challenge such a performer could ever face, and Maggie embraced it.  

Maggie Haze is a real trooper and was unfazed by the cold temperatures, despite her tight-fitting costume. She crouched in the snow to gas-up her props and it was all I could do to watch her gymnastics without shivering. She went on stage at 11:45 am, right on schedule, after coaxing away the magician and his magic rabbit.

Kids gathered to watch after Maggie announced she was going to eat fire. Look at their faces! They are amazed and will never forget seeing her bring those flames so close to her tongue.

Maggie dazzled onlookers at the front of her snowy stage where there was no escaping the wind. Sudden gusts extinguished her firepot and blew out the flames on her fiery crown, but her other toys stayed alight. He black cloth balls which she calls fiery things on strings were bedazzling, and the wicks on her hula hoops also burned without interruption. It was marvelous to see her gyrate her legs, hips, and shoulders keeping three burning rings orbiting her body. She held everyone’s eyes for a few minutes at least, and nobody was cold anymore. We were enthralled.

The youthful audience will always remember Maggie Haze, the fire dancer who waltzed in blazing hula hoops, They’re remember her show long after they forget they ever attended the Tiny Seedlings event. They wont remember the curling champions Lauren Wasylkiw and Shane Konings or the science students from École Catholique Pape-François or any local politicians. The Stouffville Yankees ball players have probably already disappeared from their minds and even X Ray the magician couldn’t compare to Maggie Haze. Her show was the single transcending memory they made while attending this bitterly cold escapade in February.

The takeaway is that if Maggie can thrill audiences here in the meanest arena on earth. then she can certainly wow your family and friends with a Fire Show on a warm summer night in your sheltered backyard space.