Oakville's "fun"raiser for a new community hall and daycare kicked off yesterday with a Winter Fest and chili cook-off.

Fundraising committee chairperson Ashley Tully says the Winter Fest was awesome with plenty of people showing up. She shares some of the activities at the Winter Fest.

"We had a big toboggan slide which all the kids were on, it was wonderful. We also had a croki-curl, there was an Olaf to throw either tennis ball or snowballs into, we had a big snow painting pile which was a hit because all the kids wanted to get warm at first. We had a bonfire with roasting marshmallows, smooshing exercises; and it's a lot harder than you'd think because I got tired even doing it once, and inside was free skating for families."

Following the Winter Fest was a chili cook-off in the current community hall and Tully notes they had double the expected amount of teams taking part. 12 teams entered their chili in the challenge in the hope of being crowned Oakville's chili champs. Tully explains they haven't held a chili cook-off for several years now, with the last one being held in 2010.

"They did one a long time ago when the Olympic torch run came through, it was a free thing to get the community to come out. That's where the idea actually come from, one of our organizers' sons remembers it and was 'oh, can we do that again?' so we said 'sure, that can be the kick-off.' It's not necessarily to raise funds at this time, it's more to have fun and have the community come together."

Yesterday's activities kicked off the fundraising for the 2.5 million dollar project to build a new community hall in Oakville within the next five or six years. Tully explains the current hall was built in 1950 and, as times are changing, things need to be updated. She says they're raising the funds for the new hall through community fundraising activities, personal, private and business donations, as well as government and corporate grants.