 Fireworks explode in the sky Saturday night during the St. Joseph Fourth of July Festival. More than 3,000 residents attended the two-day event held at the Auglaize County Fairgrounds on Friday and Saturday. Staff photo/Chris Voloschuk By KRISTA HAYES
Staff Writer
Local residents didn’t let the rain damper their patriotism as they attended the 59th annual St. Joseph Festival held during the Fourth of July weekend at the Auglaize County Fairgrounds.
On Friday and Saturday, more than 3,000 people attended this year’s event, which featured food, games, rides, vendors and prize drawings. Those who braved short periods of rainfall were treated to fireworks donated by primary sponsors Time Warner Cable, G. A. Wintzer & Son, Ross McCain and Poppe Law Office.
“Right before we got the fireworks ready, it finally quit raining, although the weather did damper some of the crowd earlier in the day,” St. Joe Festival Secretary Mike Wurst said. “Some sought shelter in the buildings while others huddled under the tents, but they kept going.”
For eight hours beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, 50 prizes were awarded, totaling more than $50,000. The final grand prize of $10,000 in cash was awarded to one lucky winner while another took home the smallest prize of $250 in cash.
“One of the first things I did when I got here was buy a raffle ticket,” St. Marys resident Penny Glass said. “Although I have yet to win anything out of all the years I have attended the festival, I’m always hopeful I’ll win something. If not, I consider it a donation that will go to a good cause.”
Other prizes included in the Grand Sizzler were $500 in cash, a package for two to the August Bristol NASCAR Sprint Cup race, a 2009 Suzuki King quad four wheeler, a chartered Lake Erie fishing trip for six, a Nintendo Wii, Vizio 37-inch and 46-inch LCD TVs, and a touch screen desktop computer.
Lunch stands opened at 11 a.m. Saturday, kicking off the start of the festival for the Fourth of July, with unlimited rides offered at $12 per person from noon to 4 p.m. Bingo, lucky pull, cake wheels, a 50-50 drawing, novelty stand and kids games all followed beginning at 1 p.m., and an attendance prize of $59 was also given away every 59 minutes.
Attending the festival every year since its existence, including this year, was Wapakoneta and Centennial Elementary School teacher Karen Hutt, who said she likes to bring her two young children, Riley and Lincoln, to the event to ride the numerous children’s rides.
“We live right across the street, and when the kids saw the staff starting to put up the tents they kept asking me when we could go,” Hutt said. “I’ve been coming to the festival as long as I can remember, ever since I was Riley’s age and she’s 7.”
The Auglaize County Fire Chiefs’ Poker Run also returned to the festival for its sixth year and the evening closed with performances by the Tree Top Players at 5 p.m. and Big Worm and the Spazmatics, in the beer garden, followed by the community fireworks at 10:30 p.m.
Also returning for their fifth year selling bags of sweet kettle corn in the flavors of original, raspberry, cherry and butter and salt, were vendors Joann and Daniel Mango.
“We’re originally from Old Town, Fla., but we travel all throughout the summer right up to the week before Thanksgiving in Ohio to make and sell our kettle corn,” Joann Mango said. “We keep coming back to the festival each year because we love the people here and we would move up here if we could.”
Although Wurst did not have an exact figure of how much money was raised by the Grand Sizzler, he said the money will be tuned over to the church to go into its general fund.
The most money the festival raised was two years ago when it collected $95,000.
“I won’t know for at least two months exactly how much money we raised throughout the two days,” Wurst said, “but I do know the final figure isn’t as good as what it was last year. Still, it was good and will go a long way in helping out the church.”
With the fireworks bringing the festival to a close for yet another successful year, Wurst said the event was among one of the top festivals he has been involved in over the years.
“Overall, the festival was as good as they come despite the rain which killed the event nearly six years ago, causing us to postpone the fireworks,” Wurst said. “This year though, we had large crowds and really just a good group of people that helped to make it so successful.
“It was a good festival, he said. “A lot of people came out, had a lot of fun and really seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what the festival is all about.”
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