By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Those in a pickle looking for something to do not far from home this weekend need not look any further than the City of Galion as the Pickle Run Festival opened Friday evening.
Taking over Heise Park, many of the Pickle Run’s opening day activities surrounded James D. Heddleson Field Prior to the Galion Graders game against the Irish Hills Leprechauns. The game featured not one, but two ceremonial first pitches.
Jacob Chambers, winner of the Pickle Run Essay contest explained what he wrote about to win the essay contest.
“I wrote about Galion, and how Galion is great,” Chambers said.
Chambers added his favorite part about the city are its baseball teams.
Also throwing a ceremonial first pitch was Wendy the mascot of the fast food restaurant Wendy’s. Portraying Wendy was Rebecca Casperson. Casperson explained how she landed the job as Wendy.
“I work at Wendy’s and one day they asked me to do it and I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it,’ ” Casperson said. “This is actually my second time being Wendy. So one time I stood outside the store and said Hi to the people, and now I am at the baseball game.”
The 2015 winner of the Miss Ohio contest Sarah Hider was tapped to sing the National Anthem prior to the game starting. During her performance technical difficulties dropped the audio from Hider’s microphone, however, the former Miss Ohio didn’t miss a beat, finishing out the song projecting her voice a little more for those in attendance to hear. Hider explained that while the technical mishap occurred she still enjoyed the opportunity.
“It is awesome, one of my favorite things to do as Miss Ohio is to sing the National Anthem at many events. I love singing and it is always a great way to honor our country as well,” Hider said.
Hider explained she enjoyed coming to Galion for its small town atmosphere.
“It is awesome,” Hider exclaimed. “I am from Wooster, and of course Miss Ohio is (held) in Mansfield,” Hider said. “So I have spent a lot of time in this part of Ohio. I absolutely love it. I am a small town girl, so it is great to be here on this beautiful evening.”
The Pickle Run isn’t all about baseball, though, as there are numerous events taking place throughout the weekend. Festival organizer Sarah Capretta explained what went into planning this year’s Pickle Run.
“A lot of sweat equity, a lot of planning, a lot of getting groups involved and just coordinating fun events for everybody that we thought would be good for the community, and a fun way to get them to interact with different events,” Capretta said.
While the Pickle Run Festival runs through Sunday, Capretta explained that they are already looking to next year.
“We have ideas for next year,” Capretta revealed. “Every year you can always improve on the previous year, so we already have ideas for next year on things that we want to do and different things we want to try.”
During the Graders’ game numerous pickle themed events were played including a variation of hot potato dubbed hot pickle and a game of pickle in which a fan tried to escape a run-down and make it to base safely.
Today the Pickle Run Festival will get an early start with the Galion YMCA’s Triathlon at 7:30 a.m. and 5K run at 8:30. The fun doesn’t stop there as the NFL Punt, Pass, and Kick competition will take place at Unkrich Stadium at 11 a.m. Unkrich Stadium will be taken over at 5 p.m. by teams competing in the Anything Goes competition.
For more information on the Pickle Run Festival and its events visit http://www.picklerunfestival.com/.
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