Park social about community
WARSAW – The 49th annual River View Community Park Social is in the books with only a few dozen watermelon seeds on the ground and maybe a lost plastic duck or two caught among the weeds in Beaver Run. (Just kidding about the lost ducks!) Great entertainment by the Walhonding Valley Rube Band and Chestnut Ridge Bluegrass Gospel Band and beautiful weather combined on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 2, for a large crowd to enjoy the event.
With over 700 chicken halves cooked over an open fire starting in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the park social is about a community coming together for good food, fellowship and fun.
River View Community Park Board President Jesse Fischer said, “What makes this work is community. That’s right in our name and I think today is a testament to the community part of our name and our heritage. It’s not just the park board members that do this, it’s not just the people that work for the village or the pool, it’s the volunteers we have here serving food, it’s the people that made homemade pies and brought in to sell. It’s the people from around the community that help make homemade ice cream, set up tables and chairs. Anybody and everybody pitches in whatever they can do to pull this off.”
“Obviously, having great weather helps but even in years where we don’t, it doesn’t hurt us too bad because people know what we do here improves the quality of life in the community.”
Fischer said, “The money raised goes to the park. We still have bills to pay even in the winter months. We’ve been fortunate and through good management we have other streams of revenue now. Doing fundraisers like this just adds to the potential to improve things here at the park. We still have a lot of original equipment from 1969 here at the park that we are slowly replacing over the last few years. We want to maintain this park the best we can so this park – this legacy – the people that founded it, can continue into the future.”
Fischer said he couldn’t say enough about the Walhonding Valley Firefighters and the work they put in to cook over 700 chicken halves for the event. “Without those guys–they donate their time–that’s just another one of those aspects of people chipping to make this happen.”
The watermelon eating contest is always a fun event to watch – not sure about later in the day as the youngsters are holding their tummies. Sandy Zimmer leads the charge on this event. In the 6 and under category, Carson Tidwell was first, Grant Timmons second and Riley Wood third. In the 7 to10 year old group, Cruz Mobley was first, Cameron Mobley second and Trayvon Berry third. In the 11 to 14 year old age group, Kelsey Bowman was first, Hunter Bowman second and Piper Guthrie third. In the 15 and over age, Hunter Holdsworth was first, Kim Titus second and James Smith, third.
The duck race ends the weekend of festivities with dozens of people rooting on their brightly colored – and numbered – plastic duck. There seems to be no logical analysis to which color of duck wins – but this year there did seem to be a lot of green ducks at the front of the pack. So this journalist knows what color he is buying next year!
mark@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
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