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Weather hampers Sunfest
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Casey Malloy, 2, looks at sand sculptures at Sun Fest at Mill Creek Metro Parks in Youngstown on Sunday. The all-day event at the James Wick Recreation Area featured a variety of activities for families.
By ROBERT CONNELLY
YOUNGSTOWN
Families kept their eye on the weather while having fun at a park’s annual Sunfest.
Many families left the Mill Creek Park shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday once winners were announced for a sand-sculpture competition.
Rain and a tornado watch for much of the Valley caused many to leave early, but only one event was heavily affected by the weather, the Mahoning Valley Olde Car Club. While the majority of those cars did not show because of the inclement weather, a few made the trip as storms left the area.
Carol Vigorito has been running Sunfest for four years and said about Sunday’s weather, “We’re in parks and recreation. We deal with bad weather all the time. When you have as much going on in one day as we do here, it’s hard to do a rain date.”
Sunfest ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Mill Creek MetroParksat the James Wick Recreation Area off McCollum Road. Events included two free concerts at the end of the day, appearances by high school robotic teams where kids could use the machines for a ball-throwing exercise, and a large version of the game Jenga.
The judging for the sand-sculpture competition was moved up an hour as officials and competitors kept their eye on the incoming storms.
Vigorito said the event’s concerts went on. As the day cleared up, she said the crowd returned, and the concerts ran only a few minutes late.
The bands were Teddy Pantelas Trio and Rudy and the Professionals.
“Everybody that came out had a great time,” she said.
Boardman residents Amanda McNinch and her 5-year-old son, Connor, were leaving Sunfest when the rain began to quicken Sunday about 3 p.m. Connor’s arms were covered in sand and the boy smiled when talking about the activities he participated in.
“We’re very disappointed because we’ve played in the sand for over four hours before and this year we’ve got to go home ... We might come back if the storms pass,” McNinch said. “We knew [the weather] was coming so we just enjoyed it while we could.”
Connor told his mother that they were going to come up with a plan for next year’s sand-sculpture Sunday night. He also said he enjoyed shooting a ball using a robot from Austintown Fitch’s robotics team. Vigorito said Warren Harding, Austintown Fitch and Champion high schools all had their robotics teams at the event. Those three high schools are a part of the Northeast Ohio F.I.R.S.T., For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, Robotics Club.
Joni Edgar and her grandson, Davis Gordan, also left the park about the same time as McNinch. Edgar said of Sunfest before the rain started, “This was a nice day and a lot of people. Unfortunately, not enough to do all the sand, but next year we’re going to take a pile of sand.”
There were about 20 teams that each competed with 1 ton of sand to create something.
The Whetson family won first place in the kids division with Olaf, a snowman from the Disney movie “Frozen.” Second place went to the Weetman family who constructed a butterfly. Team Dogfish, the Straweerman family, took first place in the family division while the Hammar family, Team Pug, took second.
“We had a great mix this year of kids and adults, and that’s what we wanted was for families to come out and have fun,” Vigorito said.
While everyone who participated in the sand-sculpting paid a fee, every other event was free.
“In the MetroParks, we think it’s very important to provide as much as we can to the community, especially the free concert,” Vigorito said. “We tried to provide a lot of diverse activities here today to try to get a lot of people.”