For more than 32,000 of us, this is a true statement – North Royalton is my home! The one event during the year that brings out more of our residents than any other is our annual community festival. From the opening ceremonies, straight through to the fireworks grande finale, thousands are drawn to the City Green to spend time with their families and their friends.
Speaking for the Chamber of Commerce as the organizers and sponsors of the festival, and I’m pretty sure I also speak for the city administration and the police and fire departments, that our number one hope is that everything goes well and there are no mishaps – Will the weather cooperate? Will there be a problem with the rides? Will the fireworks be shot off safely?
Thankfully, everything went off without a hitch, and the weather did cooperate just long enough for the wonderful fireworks display. We watched our residents, young, old and all ages in between, enjoying the rides, listening and dancing to the music, savoring the carnival food, or just strolling around the grounds checking out all the exhibits.
Listening to comments from our festival goers is very heart-warming. We found Rose and Ken Breen sitting on the glider at the Green, just enjoying a warm summer evening. With his hand affectionately on his wife’s knee, Ken said, “We’ve been married almost 60 years and have nine kids.” One of their children lives and owns a business in North Royalton.
The area around the gazebo fills up with different groups, depending upon who is on stage. Our very talented local teen bands, Drift and Velocity, brought out the young, singing along to the music. Coast2Coast was new to our stage this year and very popular for all ages as they sang everything from Motown to Rap. Of course, Eddie and the Edsels is a favorite that always brings out couples to the dance floor.
What can we say about the festival parade! Seeing the thousands of people lining Ridge Road waiting and watching is just so fantastic. Everyone is so happy. As the Recorder staff walked along the parade route, we heard shouts of “thank you” and “you rock!” And we thanked them back!
It was awesome to see our clubs and organizations with their vehicles, our churches with their floats, our dance studios, scouts, businesses, and politicians meeting, greeting and passing out candy, bags, T-shirts and bouncy balls to the crowd. What can we say about our cheerleaders, football team and marching band! The highlight of the parade, they never disappoint and are always entertaining and inspiring.
Our parade “caboose” always comes with a message, and this year the Recorder held a contest asking our readers to come up with the slogan for our parade organizers to wear on their T-Shirts. Thank you, Frank Taylor, for coming up with N R M Y H O M E.
As Sunday evening approached and the skies looked “iffy”, some of us were on our phones checking weather status… will we be able to have the fireworks? Will the projected rain hold off? The answer was yes, as the sprinkles began just as the fireworks ended. And what a fireworks display it was – better than ever before!
We hope you were able to come to the community festival, and enjoy the festivities on one, two or all three days. For those of us who are behind the scenes with the planning and staging, seeing everyone together for the festival is like a family reunion – our Royalton family. Thank you, NR MY HOME!
By MARIA MAGNELLI
Recorder Editor