Dear?Editor,

The 8th annual Boo In The Park organized by The All-American Days Festival was a great success with almost 600 kids attending again this year. This was a joyous event, but it was a somber evening for some of us. We have lost 4 of our volunteers since last year. Phyllis McNell was the one that came up with the idea of Boo In The Park and after several years of trying to get it off of the ground, we decided to give it a try. It has been a wonderful event for children and adults to enjoy since then. We also lost Bernie Walker, Linda Davis and Betty Serafin. They were always there to help put on our events in Bellaire. We will miss you all.

Luckily we had new volunteers step forward to help fill the void. A big thank you goes out to the Village workers that got the park in shape for that evening. Thank you to Bob Bennett, Bobby Bennett, Bobbie Jo Maguire and Dave Maguire for taking off work to help get the lights and decorations up along with Shauna Walker, Gloria Lemasters, and Rebecca Zwack’s students from St. Johns School. This is a huge undertaking. We start transforming the park at 10 a.m. and it is usually non-stop until the kids start filing in at 6 p.m. Thank you to the Martins Ferry Fire Department and Dave Maguire for again providing us with our free hayrides. We really appreciate and thank all of the people that work the 20 stations. Anyone that has ever worked it can tell you that it is a fun, fast paced evening. We get all of the kids through there in about 2 hours. That’s around 300 kids an hour going through the park, but the ones that have worked all enjoy the evening. The smiles on the kids faces make it all worthwhile. We want to send a big thank you out to our sponsors. Please let them know how much you appreciate their support of this event. They are Belmont Savings Bank, Riesbeck’s, Nancy Raeder, Bellaire Hardware, Bellaire Area Chamber of Commerce, LaRoche Tree Service, Noble Energy, Chirp’s Auto Body, Bellaire Park District, Lew Delbert/Snyder Chips, MOS, Klempa Construction, United Bank, Gattos, Bellaire Senior Center, Domino’s, McDonalds, Dr. Erica Booth, Belmont Community Hospital, Country Club Retirement Campus, EMT Services, Eden’s Auto Ranch, Ohio River Valley Elks, WTRF, Bauknecht-Altmeyer Funeral Home, Teleman, Bellaire Harbor Service, Bellaire Wesleyan Church, Spirit of 76 Fire Department, Faith Fellowship Church, St. Mary and Martha Guild of Trinity Episcopal Church, John and Jeannie Leonard, and Jim and Carol Williams.

A big thank you also goes out to The First United Methodist Church for having their Trunk Or Treat as an added bonus. Without each and every one of you, this would not be the successful event that this has become.

Thank you again.

The All-American Days Festival Committee