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Fest showcases Liberty Twp.
LIBERTY
The rain didn’t keep everybody away.
Even though a parade, car show and band had to be canceled at the third annual Celebration in the Park here Saturday, a few hundred people came to enjoy the festival.
“We want to showcase how beautiful the township is,” explained June Smallwood, the festival coordinator.
The event, at the township administration building on Hubbard-Church Hill Road (state Route 304), is a collaboration involving the township, the nearby Liberty Health Care Center, Windsor House’s Liberty Arms Assisted Living, the Liberty Township Historical Society, Freedom Place Church and Walmart, said Jamie Grimmett, activities director for Liberty Health Care center, a nursing home down the street from the township building.
At a tent outside the township building, volunteers from the nursing home were cooking hamburgers, hot dogs and sausage sandwiches.
“We ran out of food. We had to go twice!” said Tina McGowan.
Inside the building, people were gathered in the trustees’ meeting room to see how they fared as numbers were called out in an auction.
Liberty businesses and each department at the nursing home put together and donated baskets, McGowan explained. Money raised from the food, auction and a 50-50 raffle will be used for activities at the center, she said.
In the parking lot, Bary Bunts of Ellsworth sold caramel apples from a concession stand while his mother, Pearl Bunts, and sister Boni Noel chatted. With them was Noel’s daughter, 5-year-old Nicole.
It was Pearl Bunts’ 91st birthday, and she had come over from the nursing home to spend the day with her family.
“It’s nice they wheeled her over,” Bary Bunts said.
“I worked in this trailer for 54 years!” Pearl said. “Now I’m over there.”
“She says I made her retire,” said Bary.
Bary said the stand, Bunts’ Concessions, has been at the Canfield Fair for 58 years, and it was his first year at the Liberty Township festival.
He said the festival was good, considering the weather.
“There was not a lot of people, but it was pouring rain,” he said.
Grimmett concurred.
“For the weather being what it was, it was a nice day,” she said. “A lot of people did come out.”