Cranberry Twp. celebrates sense of community
When Haley Clancy showed up last year with her typewriter to write and sell poetry at Cranberry's Community Days, the township's annual summer fair, she said the event's staff kicked her out since she didn't have a permit to solicit money. This year, she paid $350 for one of the 250 kiosks set up in the Community Park during the three-day township fundraiser.
“It's crazy what people will tell you,” Clancy, a Cranberry native, said. “I just wrote a poem for a woman who was married for 45 minutes before her husband left her.”
Clancy was one of several hundred vendors who helped turn the Cranberry park into a fairground between Thursday and Saturday.The event kicks off fundraising efforts for the township's Community Chest, according to Pete Geis, the township's director of parks and recreation. Along with the kiosks occupied by local businesses and national outlets were those of chiropractors and companies selling CBD-based products. The other part of the event featured carnival rides and attractions.“Our primary reason is to provide everyone with that hometown feel,” Geis said.“But just as important is to raise money for a project we take on every year,” he said.
Last year, the township used the Community Days event to raise money to renovate a library.This year, the township wants to renovate the amphitheater in the park. The theater is host to live shows, movie nights, concerts and theatrical productions. Typically, Geis said, the fundraising efforts will net about $250,000 to $300,000.“This community is so giving,” Geis said. “It's not a hard solicitation. Once the word gets out, people will call us offering money.”While most of the kiosks were filled with companies looking to gain customers, some of the kiosk hosts were there for informational purposes. Mason Miller, a waste water pretreatment administrator with the township, set up an enclosed beehive to promote the township's new pollinator garden near the Highlands driving range. He offered honey tubes and invited curious onlookers to visit the garden at the end of the month when it opens.
Geis said the event is run by township employees volunteering their time. By the end of Saturday, Geis expected the three-day affair to have attracted 7,000 to 10,000 people.“Everyone in Cranberry comes out for this,” he said.But it's not only township residents who visit. Braiden Schultz traveled with his wife and three children from Wheeling, W. Va., for the event.“This is a lot, but in a good way,” Schultz said as he entered the kiosk section. “We do it for the kids. Our plan is making it to the fireworks tonight, but that depends on how the 1-year-old handles it.”
