By Jordan Studer
CCN Reporter

GALION — The Fourth Annual Galion Pickle Run Festival gave community members a great reason to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend. The festival began Friday evening with food vendors and inflatables.

In past years, the “run” portion of the festival had been a 5K or a triathlon, but this year brought about something a bit more colorful.

The run this year was transformed into a Glo Run and Fun Run, hosted by the Galion YMCA, that both took place Friday evening.  According to Sarah Capretta, organizer of the Pickle Run Festival, the new addition brought along a great turnout with it.

Top Overall Female of the Glo Run, Jamie Tate and her husband Mark both raved that the new addition of events is one of the things that truly continues to peak the interest of the community.

“They do a really good job of bringing different kinds of things for everbody, so it makes it kind of nice,” Mark Tate said. “It’s good they change it up a little bit every year, there’s new events and that makes it fun.”

The addition of the Glo Run was not the only thing bringing people out to enjoy a night on the town though. Saturday’s festival schedule was filled to the brim with activities such as sports tournaments for all ages, a craft show, a car show, an Ohio Village Muffins Baseball game, an afternoon parade and the Anything Goes Competition.

Jamie Tate said their family attends the Pickle Run Festival every year since it’s reappearance to the community, and has seen it as a great thing for the community every since.

“I love it! I love how family-friendly it is and how there is so much stuff going on all the time. I think Sarah (Capretta) is doing a great job,” she explained.

City of Galion Communications Director and Pickle Run Festival planning committee member Matt Echelberry said  the attendance for 2018 was the largest one they have seen.

“In terms of crowd, it seems like the biggest one we’ve had, or at least the steadiest one throughout the entire day,” Echelberry said. “Overall, just a lot of people having fun. Seems like they really like the variety of activities that we have.”

This year also proved to be a year for larger community presence with different vendors reaching out to be a part of the action. Those helping to organize the event expressed their gratitude to the vendors, craft show vendors, and bands who all showed interest in wanting to make the event grow.

“We had a lot of different vendors from around the area contacting us about wanting to set up so obviously people are seeing is a good thing in the area,” Capretta explained.

Live music also helped to keep the crowd entertained and music flooding through the air. Capretta explained that she was very pleased with the steady attendance and thought every event, activity, and just the overall festival was filled with happy faces.

“It is good when every year more and more people want to get involved. It is a lot and it’s fun that people are seeing that it’s a good thing and they want to be a part of it. We’re excited,” expressed Capretta.

In terms of how those in charge of the Pickle Run Festival hope to see the event grow, more community involvement in activities and volunteer assistance seemed to be a repeated answer.

“For next year, It’s always nice to have more volunteers, more hands pitching in to held with all the little bumps along the way kind of making this happen, making things run smooth,” Echelberry said.

Although attendance was strong and steady this year, the hope is to continue to find ways to help the community want to participate more. Jamie Tate expressed how she wished more of the community would come out and participate in the fun events like the Anything Goes Competition.

Another goal mentioned by Echelberry was to continue to to bring new ideas to the table.

“We’re always on the lookout for new ideas of events,” he said. “None of this happens without individual event organizers kind of taking the lead and running the events as they are happening, so we always need more hands.”