Celebrate Poland: A 2-day course of history, fun

By Denise Dick

Civil War re-enactors are part of the activities this year.

POLAND — Come one day for the parade and fireworks, and return the next for singing, art, poetry, crafts, history, a movie and more.

Celebrate Poland begins June 26 with the Poland Presbyterian Church Strawberry Festival followed by the parade, fireworks and a Civil War encampment.

It continues June 27 with a craft show, chalk art, live petting zoo and pony rides, dedication of a historical marker, a singing contest, karate demonstration, concert, lamplight Riverside Cemetery tour and the regional premiere screening of the movie “Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes.” All activities will be around village hall.

“We wanted to have something where you could come on Friday night for the parade and fireworks and then come back Saturday to spend the day,” said Larry Warren, a member of the event’s organizing committee.

Although the strawberry festival, parade and fireworks are long-standing village fixtures, this marks the second Celebrate Poland when activities continue through the following day.

Members of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry Company D, Civil War re-enactors, will demonstrate drills, fashion show, baking and cooking and stay in tents at their campsite.

“After dark, they’ll have a musket firing,” said Terri Windsor, another organizer. “They say it’s really interesting to see the flash of the muskets go off.”

That’s planned for both nights.

The Ohio company, based in Youngstown, will be joined by re-enactors of a Confederate company.

They’ll all sit around the campfire at night, telling stories and singing songs that coincide with the period they portray.

A lamplight tour of Riverside Cemetery is planned for the evening of June 27.

Four soldiers from the company portrayed by the re-enactors are buried in the cemetery,

“There are 125 Civil War veterans buried at Riverside Cemetery,” Warren said. “Ohio was a strong abolitionist state. I guess they had a high number of recruits from this area.”

“Poland Idol,” organizers’ version of the popular Fox television show “American Idol,” returns this year. To register, call Cindy Best at (330) 651-2999 or e-mail registration to celebratepoland@gmail.com.

Also returning is the craft show, and spots remain open for vendors. Contact Barbara Banks at (330) 757-4584 or Mary Alice Fedor at (330) 757-1578 or register by e-mail.

At 11 a.m. June 27, the community’s third Ohio Historical Society marker will be dedicated at the Old Stone Tavern on South Main Street. The other two are at Poland Middle School and Poland Presbyterian Church.

The tavern, built in 1804, is the oldest building in the community and believed to be among the oldest in Ohio’s Western Reserve.

It served as a stopping place for stagecoaches traveling between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Jack Shetler owns the building.

It was on the tavern’s steps where William McKinley was sworn in as a private in Ohio’s 23rd Infantry. The swearing-in of the Poland resident, who would become the country’s 25th president, will be re-enacted as part of the weekend activities.

A petting zoo and pony rides run from noon to 3 p.m. June 27. Pony Tails Pony Rides and Petting Zoo of Canfield’s appearance is sponsored by Poland Rotary. Animals scheduled include an alpaca, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits and ducks.

The chalk-art contest returns this year, and a new event this year is a poetry contest by the Poland branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.

“Our goal when we were thinking about this a few years ago was to have activities for people to not only come for the parade and the fireworks but to come back the next day and be able to spend the day,” Warren said.

Organizers believe they’ve achieved that goal but expect the 2010 fete to be even larger.

denise_dick@vindy.com