Antiques in the Park brings community members out for fun in downtown
Antiques in the Park was a free all-day event held on June 5 in the artPARK featuring antique dealers selling primitives, pottery, glass, furniture, collectibles as well as food vendors, and games for both adults and children with some pretty nice prizes.
Perfect weather made for a great day to have a bicycle give away. Jaxon Sampsel, 7-years-old, was one lucky winner. “I was scared I wouldn’t get picked,” he said. Palmer Grove, 4-years-old was the first bicycle winner.
Ten-year-old Evan Lawrence said he was just lucky when he won a skate board for blowing the first bubble in the bubble gum competition. Other activities included Elvis, a magician, reptile show, hula hoop and yoyo contest, an egg hunt and dance competitions for both children and adults.
Dick McCune’s reptile show provided interaction with snakes, turtles and lizards. Charlotte the snake was unique and interesting. “Snakes are all muscle so they are very, very strong and they also have a warm side and a cool side so they can regulate their heat,” he said.
Activities also were provided by the Coshocton Art Guild. Christy Mosier, vice president of the group, said they wrote a grant to the Coshocton Junior Women’s Club because they wanted to be part of this event and give people an opportunity to try their hand at different art mediums. “This gives an opportunity for them to try it before they invest a lot of money,” she said. “The number one goal is to recruit some members to the art guild and to let people try different art mediums.”
“We are just out here having fun,” said Lanny Spaulding executive director of Our Town Coshocton. “We have had a great turn out with a great mix of children and adults participation. We have had a steady flow all day. It’s nice to see families having fun. This came about when Bill Appis from Coshocton Furniture and vice-president of Antiques in the Park approached us and said, ‘Hey, we want to do Antiques in the Park, we want to have it in the artPARK and will you help us.’ That’s the role that we see Our Town fulfilling. We are all about historic preservation, business development and bringing folks in but an essential part is bringing the community downtown.”
Wallace Guthrie, director and president of Antique in the Park, agreed that the festival was going great.
“We’ve got a lot of vendors coming in,” he said. “We have a guy doing a magic show and Elvis is coming in. Pizza Hut, Grandmom Minnie’s Munchies, The Warehouse Steak and Stein and I’m selling homemade peanut brittle from Holmes County, caramel corn, cotton candy and Amish chocolate with my friend Bill Davenport. Next door we have a guy selling his own homemade salsa.”
Spaulding added that it was great to see people coming out and enjoying themselves again.
“You can just tell that life is starting to get back to normal, people are seeing that, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of this event,” he said. “Rick Miller from Five Points Auto sales donated a car to be auctioned off and folks like him want to do what they can to be a help in the community and help with the charitable auction. We’ve been overwhelmed with the support that we have. We have a large list of sponsors. We’ve had tremendous support from the community, we are looking to make this an annual event and I think this is a great way to kick it off.”
Category: Arts & Entertainment, Multimedia, Photo Galleries
