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Trinity Valley offers freshmen
orientation on three campuses
Special to The Monitor
ATHENS–Trinity Valley Community College will conduct freshman
orientation sessions on its Athens, Palestine and Terrell campuses this
summer to help ease the transition to college life.
Freshman orientation offers incoming students an opportunity to get a
first-hand look at college life, as well as to receive academic advising
and career counseling.
Students may also complete the registration process while on campus.
The program helps familiarize students with TVCC opportunities, services
and facilities and provides information about costs, academics and
college policies.
TVCC in Athens has scheduled two sessions this summer. The first is
scheduled for Monday, July 24 with a reservation deadline of Monday,
July 17. The second session is set for Monday, Aug. 14 with a
reservation deadline of Monday, Aug. 7.
TVCC in Palestine will conduct freshman orientation on Wednesday, July
26. The deadline to register for this session is Friday, July 21.
TVCC in Terrell offers freshman orientation on Tuesday, Aug. 8. The
deadline to register for this session is Tuesday, Aug. 1.
The cost for each session is $20, which includes a luncheon, snacks and
materials.
Students planning to follow an associate degree program need to have
THEA results before they can attend the orientation program.
For more information or registration forms, contact the guidance office
at the location nearest you or go online to
www.tvcc.edu/guidance/freshman_orientation.
New waterpark opens with splashes
and flashes
By Dan Eakin
Monitor Correspondent
CANTON–Splash Kingdom, the new waterpark on I-20 just west of
Farm-to-Market 859 in Canton, opened Saturday June 24, with splashes and
flashes.
Only a couple of hours after the park opened, a lightning storm blew in,
causing the park to temporarily be evacuated.
“We got to practice our first evacuation drill on the first day,” Johnny
Blevins said, who is operating the park with his wife Marci.
As the lightning flashed, the thrill seekers were told to get out of the
water and head for shelter.
Several got under the awnings and inside the few buildings.
Others went to their cars.
Armbands issued when entering the park allow patrons to come and go
throughout the day, as they wish.
After the brief storm passed on by, the way was cleared for the fun
seekers to return to the water.
That is, to the slides, the lazy river, the sand castle, the wave or
wherever they wanted to go to have fun.
“We had over 800 people on Saturday and over a 1,000 on Sunday, Blevins
said. “We learned we could easily accommodate as many as 2,000 people at
one time, without anyone having to wait in lines for very long,” he
added.
People came from all over. One fellow said he was from Florida.
A lot of Van Zandt County people were on hand, including from Canton,
Edgewood, Martins Mill, Grand Saline, Wills Point and Ben Wheeler.
But many from adjacent counties and beyond also came for the opening
weekend.
The wave stopped working for a while, but it soon got fixed.
“There were a few kinks to get worked out, but we’ve got them fixed,”
Blevins said. He is seen frequently walking amidst the crowd and
visiting with the guests.
The outdoor area of the park has a wave pool, a slide tower with five
slides, a lazy river, and a large children’s area with a castle and a
pool for smaller children. Licensed lifeguards are on duty at all
times.
The children’s castle is a beautiful storybook “sand castle” resting in
a 7,000 square foot pool that is about 10 inches deep.
The castle has seven slides for children and small tots. Surrounding
the castle are several fun water toys such as tipping buckets, raindrop
mushrooms, a brightly colored whale slide and other spraying toys.
Filling the center of the park, and surrounding the children’s castle is
the Lazy River.
The river is just like it sounds – lazy. This 900-foot long endless
river is three-feet deep and 12-feet wide.
People can swim, walk, or float on the tubes provided by Splash Kingdom.
Splash Kingdom has five major slides falling from a huge, two-platform
tower. The top platform is 60-feet high and has two raft slides
beginning from there.
Blue Thunder is an open flume slide and White Lightning is enclosed all
the way down, so guests are not sure what turn is coming up next. From
the 50-foot high platform, they have three additional body slides.
The Express is a speed slide for high thrills. The Royal Flush body bowl
is different each ride, because after shooting out of the start tube and
traveling about 200 feet in a tube, participants are launched into a
large bowl to spin and twist their way to the bottom that will drop them
four feet into a catch pool.
The Pink Panic also starts from the 50-foot tower, and is totally
enclosed from top to bottom. This quick drop speed twister keeps
sliders guessing as they plummet to the bottom.
The huge wave pool can create several types of waves. The “beach” entry
is more than 150-feet wide and has plenty of room for wading, splashing,
and walking.
The deeper end is five feet deep by 75-feet wide and will have
three-foot high waves.
Splash Kingdom also has an outstanding food and beverage facility,
complete with fresh grilled items, salads, smoothies and more.
A retail shop offers swimsuits, sports clothing and other items. An
indoor complex has glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, an arcade room and
rooms available for meetings, reunions, and other events. Birthday
parties are one of the specialties, promising an “extraordinary”
experience.
The glow-in-the-dark, 3-D miniature golf course finds players putting
through a shipwreck, or through pirate cannon fire. Fish seem to swim
right up to them during shots through three-dimensional artwork
technology.
Both the indoor and outdoor facilities can be rented for special events
before and after regular park hours.
Waterpark hours are: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Wednesday and 11
a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
The indoor facility hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday
and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
The water park will be open until early September.
The indoor area is open year round.
Families, who wish to bring their own picnic for a day of fun may do so
in a designated area outside the park.
No food or drinks are allowed inside the park.
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