More than 20 years ago, Windham residents had the Fun in the Sun festival to look forward to each year before it was discontinued. Thanks to the work of Windham’s City Council, residents will experience a blast from the past when the event returns this summer on Saturday at Windham Park starting at 2:30 p.m.
“One of the things I have seen by just being involved with this is that the people in the community are starting to come out of the woodwork,” City Council President Sherri Pennington told The Weekly Villager on July 12. “They are excited about this and we are so thankful that this is going on. We used to do this with our children and now our grandchildren can experience the same things that our children did so there is a big hype in the community for this.”
The one-day event will include a variety of activities for children and adults, including carnival games for the kids such as ring toss, balloon popping, duck game and beer tent for the adults. The event will host a Chinese raffle and auction items such as gift cards for free pizzas and subs and also gift baskets.
In addition to food trucks being there, the event will hold a barbecue, hot dog eating contest, rib cook-off and a Texas Hold’em tournament. As the sky gets darker, the festivities will end with a fireworks show.
“Some of those types of things are a little bit different, as we are trying to expand it,” Pennington noted. “We want to be able to be enticing to every person’s interest. Some people are interested in some things and some people are not, so we want to get a variety of things there so everybody would be able to participate.”
She added that the return of the event served as a nice trip down memory lane for the majority of Windham residents, who attended Fun in the Sun when they were either children or took their children to it.
“What I have seen is unity,” Pennington said. “All of the churches are coming together and are sponsoring all of the games for the kids six-and-under. I have seen a lot of the unity I grew up with being a Windham resident and people in the community being a part of it.”
For more than two decades, Windham substituted a Fall Festival to replace the Fun in the Sun. According to Pennington, the Village Council was inspired to revive the event thanks to a pitch from new Windham Mayor, Lawrence “Mac” Cunningham.
“I think this is one of the things that he thinks will help and show how much he cares about his community and how much he wants this community to continue to grow and be on the map,” she added. “People want to be in this community and live in this community and they see a family community.”
The event is being funded primarily from the Parks and Recreation general fund but has also received donations from Windham residents. In addition to receiving financial support, Pennington said that there has been overwhelming moral support from the community.
“I have literally received one or two calls each day from so and so saying, ‘I remember this, and I would love to help and how can I volunteer?’,” noted Pennington. “It is interesting. Over the last several weeks, it is really starting to grow, and people are really starting to raise their hand and say, ‘Hey I would like to be part of this.’”
The support has not just been from Windham residents but also those from neighboring communities including Garrettsville, as several Garrettsville businesses have offered their services to help make it a memorable day.
Although Windham is a smaller community than it was 20-plus years ago, Pennington said that the revival of the event could go a long way into helping bring businesses back to Windham.
“Of course we hope that this will continue to grow year over year but I think this is our first stepping stone towards those types of things,” she said.
Should things go well, Pennington said that there is a significant chance that Fun in the Sun will once again become an annual event and replace the Fall Festival
“I believe that just with the feedback I have received from all of the calls that I am getting is that people are more supportive of this than they are of the Fall Festival,” she acknowledged.
