Staff photo / Bob Coupland Dylan Licata, 13, of Vienna and a student at Mathews High School, gets splashed with water at the bucket dunk booth during Vienna Home Day downtown on Saturday.
VIENNA – The first Vienna Home Day took place in 1911 and this summer tradition continues to this day, bringing the community together for a day of fun and camaraderie.
The annual Home Day was held on Saturday on the Township Green, where various organizations, churches and businesses set up booths to welcome families.
Pam Klinger, the event’s organizer, said Home Day was held again in 2011 after a hiatus of many years, to mark the 100th anniversary of the first event.
“Everyone said we needed to bring back Home Day. I saw that it started at Shook Farm in 1911, so 2011 was a good time to bring it back. We wanted to bring the nonprofits and other groups together for this day,” said Klinger.
She said the day provides an opportunity for people to see each other, socialize and spend time together. The event opened with a parade that included various school sports teams, scout groups, veterans and youth groups.
Terry Woodyard of the Herd Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Mathews Local School District, said the group had a booth at the event to raise awareness of efforts to build a new playground for Baker Elementary School.
She said that expansion work was being carried out at the school, which meant that the playground on the property would have to be relocated.
Woodyard said there are also plans for a brick path at the playground.
She said the foundation is also planning the first-ever Alumni Hall of Fame on Aug. 31 at Tiffany’s Banquet Center in Brookfield.
“On Home Day we can meet people and inform them about events taking place,” she said.
COMMUNITY GROUPS
Students from Mathews High School hosted a bucket dunk booth where various students got wet. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul made root beer floats to raise money. The Knights of Columbus Local 13260 had a table set up with proceeds going to Fairhaven or the Boyd’s Home in Kinsman.
Andy Kalinich, Grand Knight of the K of C, said they are planning community events for Halloween and Christmas to raise funds for various organizations.
Mark Haddle of the Vienna Fire Department brought one of the fire trucks to the event and also explained the Trumbull County 911 wireless emergency notification system that people can sign up for.
“The tornado sirens are an outdated technology that doesn’t always work properly. There is now a free notification system where residents countywide can sign up for any emergency notifications the county issues. The tornado sirens still sound and this is in addition to that in the event of a power outage and other events.” Said Haddle.
