By Jordan Studer
CCN Reporter
BUCYRUS — The sun and heat didn’t keep the crowd away Friday at the ninth annual South of the Square Block Rally. The rally was organized by Mizick Miller & Co. and hosted at Schines Art Park.
Throughout the park, local businesses were set up with games and prizes. For a freewill donation, community members could get lunch of a hot dog or bratwurst, chips, cookie and a drink.
Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream also was there keeping everyone cool. Olaf the Snowman from the movie Frozen, Poppy the troll from the movie Trolls, and Marshall from the show Paw Patrol all made an appearance and brought many smiles to lines of children waiting to meet them.
Roger Miller, President and CEO of Mizick Miller, was very pleased with the turnout.
“Today I think went better than we expected,” Miller said. “It was hot. We didn’t know if a lot of people would come out, but they did. We ran out of food, which is a good sign.”
This year was the first year the rally has been hosted in Schines Art Park. Miller said it made perfect sense to showcase the park and not have to worry about kids at the event running out into the streets as easily.
Looking around at the crowd, Miller reminisced on how much the event has grown over the years. Nine years ago, the streets of downtown Bucyrus were blocked off and had an idea to bring people into the area. Miller decided to roll out a grill into the street and start grilling food for the community for a freewill donation to benefit a local organization.
The hope was to remind people that their business was still up and running and ready for customers, despite the road closures. Miller thought that by providing food for the community, a freewill donation could also be collected to raise some money for the community.
According to a Mizick Miller staff accountant and marketing manager, although just a couple hundred dollars were raised the first year, throughout the past nine years, the rally has raised and been able to donate between $2,500 to $3,500.
When asking Miller if he envisioned the event growing to be as big and popular in the community as it has, he laughed.
“Nine years ago, no, I didn’t expect to be doing this. It just proves that if you’re doing something good and you’re doing something for the community there’s a lot of people here that will help out and do what they can do.”
As the crowd started to dwindle at the end of the event, Miller said he couldn’t have been more pleased and hopes that the event will only continue to grow.
“We’re excited. Everybody I’ve talked to had a good time. All the merchants were busy,” he said. “It’s a good thing. We’re very pleased. I don’t know what the numbers are going to be when we get done counting, but I’m pretty comfortable to say we will hit that $3,000 mark.”