Riding high in cranberry
CRANBERRY TWP — Hundreds of people came to Community Park Thursday night to celebrate their hometown as this year's Community Days celebration kicked off with fun, food and festivities.
The annual three-day celebration at the park includes a carnival, vendor booths, food, fireworks, music and theater.
The celebration will continue through Saturday night, ending with fireworks.
As is tradition, the celebration opened with a classic car cruise at 4 p.m. Hundreds of vintage vehicles rolled into the park as owners talked and admired the cars.
P.J. Lynd, township tax collector and the organizer of the car cruise, said interest in the cruise has grown in each of the six years he's put it together.
It's grown so much, he said, that the allotted spaces for 200 cars filled up in about a half-hour.
“This brings people out in a big way,” Lynd said.
Don Bergstrom of Harmony sat in the shade of a tree and talked about his 1923 Ford Model-T, a vehicle he called a “fun buggy.”
“It finds every dent in the road,” he said about the antique car, which is in pristine condition. “PennDOT should have one of these to help find all the potholes.”
Bergstrom said he's a veteran of car cruises, if only for the fact that his Model-T brings back old memories for many in attendance.
“It brings a broad smile to a lot of faces,” he said.
Vendor booths dotted the pathway in Community Park that led to the carnival. The hot afternoon seemed even hotter for Cranberry Township resident Taylor Pasquarelli, who was attired in a large suit made to resemble a grape.
She was there to attract people to Edible Arrangements.
Store manager Karen Rupp said, “We love to be a part of the community, but this also gives us a chance to meet people and show off our product.
We've been here for seven years, but people still might not know where we are.”Also along the pathway, township resident Leslie McKinney watched her 11-year-old son Nathan practice with the Young Brothers Tae Kwon Do group, which set up a demo on a grassy knoll.Other passers-by stopped to watch the young children in their white uniforms, as McKinney pointed out that her son is already a black belt despite his young age.McKinney sat with her two other children and remarked how Community Days has a special feeling to it unlike other carnivals.“It feels more like it's our community,” she said, “as opposed to a place just for food and games.”Mars resident Dean Boronyak agreed as he talked with his two young children at the carnival about which rides they wanted to use.“It's close and a whole lot more convenient than going to Kennywood,” he said about Community Days.Heather Condon did much of the same as she watched her 6-year-old son Kendall play in an obstacle course.The family has only lived in Cranberry for four years, but this is their second year coming to Community Days.“It's all about the atmosphere,” she said.The festival will wrap up Saturday with the fireworks at 9:30 p.m.
