By: Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
An event that hasn’t been on the Galion scene in nearly 20 years made a comeback over Independence Day weekend at Heise Park as the Pickle Run came back to life.
The Pickle Run Festival, which was last run in 1997, made its return over Saturday and Sunday with numerous activities including a 5 K run/walk, a punt, pass, and kick competition, as well as a movie behind Galion’s YMCA, however it was the Anything Goes event that may have been the highlight of the day on Saturday.
The Anything Goes event pitted four teams of six members competing across six events with the team that has the most first place finishes winning. The teams featured in the Anything Goes competition were St. Paul’s, the Galion Historical Society, the Mustaches, and the Gracepoint Goobers.
Pickle Run volunteer Summer Flick explained that they are introducing the games to the festival back slowly to get the festival going again.
“Back when they used to do the Pickle Run there were lots of different events that they did here at the stadium on the football field and on the track.” Flick said, “And we are trying to bring it back slowly with some less hard games hopefully for them, and to get it going again, because we really want the Pickle Run to come back because it is good for the community.”
Prior to the games getting under way the members of each team were announced over Unkrich Stadium’s loudspeaker. As each member of the teams was introduced, fictitious accounts of achievements in athletics were given in good humor as a back story to the participants.
The first event was the 4 x 100 tricycle relay. While St. Paul led much of the race, the Galion Historical Society’s anchor edged out St. Paul to take the victory. The Gracepoint Goobers finished in third with the Mustaches finishing the race in fourth.
After a short breather and to allow for volunteers to set up for the next event which was a sack race in which contestants had to put on the clothing contents in the sack, then hop in the sack to their teammate, undress from the sack race clothes while the teammate put on the removed clothes and jumped in the sack to continue the race. The final leg of the run was a 20 yard dash to the end zone. The Galion Historical Society grabbed their second victory in the event while the Gracepoint Goobers finished second. St Paul finished third, and the Mustaches finished in fourth place.
The third event was a relay race like no other as members from each team started off doing the hula hoop, after 10 revolutions of the hoop the competitors raced to pickles dangling from a rope, after eating a portion of the pickle the competitors would spin around 10 times with a baseball bat before racing back to their team and the next teammate doing the same task. The Galion Historical Society took first place for the third straight event followed by the Gracepoint Goobers. St. Paul finished third while the Mustaches finished fourth for the third straight event.
The fourth event pitted blindfolded contestants being led by teammates to a table in which plates with a pickle pie. The blindfolded contestants then had to find the pickle, and carry it back to their team and drop it in a bucket before the next team mate would be blindfolded and continue the race. St. Paul snagged their first victory of the day with Gracepoint Goobers finishing second. Placing third was the Mustaches and finishing in last was the Galion Historical Society.
A three legged obstacle course was the fifth event in which teams competed against each other. Starting out weaving between cones, teammates continued to the next station which was walking through tires. The third station had the teammates roll barrels before having to go over and under hurdles. The final stage of the obstacle course teammates had to climb over three boxes before finishing the race. Finishing in first place with their first victory of the day was the Gracepoint Goobers, with St. Paul crossing the line second, the Galion Historical Society finished third, and the Mustaches finished in fourth.
Closing out the Anything Goes game was strung together. In the strung together event the entire team was tied together, slightly resembling a centipede the team then raced from goal line to goal line of Unkrich Stadium. Taking their fourth first place were the Galion Historical Society, St. Paul finished second, the Gracepoint Goobers finished third, and the mustaches finished in fourth place.
With four victories in six of the events, The Galion Historical Society comprised of Director Audee Wildenthaler, and Youth volunteers Harrison Ivy, Callie Wildenthaler, Kate Wildenthaler, Sydney Dameron, and Dani Court, took first place overall in the event.
Audee Wilenthaler explained why the Galion Historical Society participated in the Anything Goes event.
“To be a part of the community activity, we are in the parade, want to do Anything Goes, we have a vendor booth, and just be part of everything in the community,” Wilenthaler said.
Wilenthaler continued by saying that the Anything Goes was incredibly fun, and that her favorite event of the competition was the strung together event as well as the sack race, and that it was a good time all around.
For a photo gallery of the Anything Goes event visit the photos section of this website.