Event termed a success, despite storms

ThisWeek CW 09/08/2011

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/canalwinchester/stories/2011/09/07/event-termed-a-success-despite-storms.html?sid=104

Extreme heat and storms couldn’t keep the 2011 Canal Winchester Labor Day Festival from being a success, according to event president Phil Hanlon.

“Despite the weather, everyone had a good time,” Hanlon said. “The rain on Sunday really hurt us, but we still estimate over 20,000 people came out this weekend.”

Due to Sunday’s storms, vendors were forced to close early and bands were not able to perform, he said. The cruise-in car show was smaller than previous years with 73 entries.

“We were happy to be able to give Bob McDorman a plaque for his support of the cruise-in all these years, where he has been the one providing the plaques,” Hanlon said.

McDorman served as the grand marshal of this year’s Labor Day parade.

Hanlon said he was very grateful for all of the hard work of festival volunteers and for the sponsorships from local businesses.

“We couldn’t have pulled this together without all of the hard work of the committees and volunteers did; they did just an excellent job,” he said. “The festival went really excellent and we had so many compliments on the new tents and facilities this year. Thank you so much to our sponsors for all of their support.”

According to the festival website, the Canal Winchester Labor Day Festival is completely volunteer-run with all funding coming from sponsors.