By Mary O’KEEFE

It began in 2015 as a winter gift to the community children from the Los Angeles County Dept. of Parks and Recreation, an unusual gift for Southern California children – a gift of snow.

“It’s one last holiday celebration,” said Sussy Nemer, LA County Supervisor spokeswoman.

Initially, LA County Fifth District Supervisor Michael Antonovich hosted the snow events at parks within his district. They continued after Supervisor Kathryn Barger won the fifth district seat and have expanded to every district in LA County.

The Winter Wonderland event was held on Jan. 6 at Two Strike Park. Snow was brought in then sprayed down a hill lined with hay bales. There were two other areas perfect for creating snow angels and throwing snowballs.

“There hasn’t been any snow in the mountains, so this is wonderful to come and play in the park,” said Norma Garcia, chief deputy director of LA County Parks and Rec. (Jan. 6 was prior to this week’s rainstorms that brought snow to the local mountains.)

In some ways, the event was a trip down memory lane when family outings were cellphone free. Garcia said she witnessed an exchange between a mother and child. The child was playing in the snow and calling to her mom to notice her, but her mom was on her cellphone. The child threw a snowball at his mom; they laughed and the cellphone was put away.

There were a lot of cellphones out, but parents were using the camera mode to capture the snowy moments.

Though some of the kids had been in snow before, like 11-year-old Jennifer DeWinter, that didn’t stop her from having a lot of fun at Two Strike Park.

“This is real snow,” she said. “It’s very cold and nice.” She added it was perfect for making snowballs. She said she also loved sledding.

Alexia Rassman and Sasha Springer, both almost 6 years old, had fun making snow angels, but especially loved sledding; even if the line was long, they went down the hill over and over again.

There was something about snow in the park under a blue sky and with warm weather that put smiles on the faces of kids and parents.

“I was talking to a parent who had to cancel their family’s Big Bear trip because there was no snow,” Garcia said. “She said having Winter Wonderland here was wonderful.”

  Mary Okeefe