Harlem Township Days open on Saturday

The open­ing parade of Harlem Town­ship Days 2012 will honor long-time (50 years or more) senior cit­i­zens of the com­mu­nity. Our over age 90 seniors will ride in con­vert­ibles and lead the parade. New this year will be a horse drawn wagon and a trac­tor drawn shut­tle so those between 80 and 90 years of age can be hon­ored as well. The parade will begin at 10 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, August 18. Any­one inter­ested is invited to join in this com­mu­nity parade. Stag­ing and line up will be on the north­east side of the Com­mu­nity Park by Ohio 605.

At noon on Sat­ur­day there will be a Meet the Author event in the Main­te­nance Build­ing at the north edge of the park. Harlem Town­ship authors, Court­ney Rene, author of young adult, para­nor­mal fic­tion (Shadow Dancer, Shadow War­rior and A Howl in the Night) and Tom Nel­son, author of his­tor­i­cal fan­tasy (The Pal­adin of Cal­en­dro, The Winds of Wharhalen and War­rior of the Dusk) will have books for sale and be avail­able to talk to fans and sign books.

A spe­cial fea­ture this year in the Main­te­nance Build­ing is an offer­ing of two books of short, fan­tasy sto­ries writ­ten by Cana­dian school chil­dren between the ages of 10 and 16. Copies of the books are $3 each and all money will be used for the Harlem Town­ship Lit­tle Library project. The new Lit­tle Library should be in place across from the recy­cling area so be sure to look for it.

Have you ever won­dered just how big the trac­tors are you see out in the field? A four-wheel drive, artic­u­lated trac­tor owned by Jack­son Farms will be on dis­play in front of the Main­te­nance Build­ing. Perry, an employee of Jack­son Farms, will be on hand to answer your ques­tions about it.

Sev­eral Big Wal­nut High School stu­dents are being fea­tured at Harlem Town­ship Days this year. Kyle Davis will have a dis­play of his award win­ning sci­ence projects about spar­rows set up in the Main­te­nance Build­ing. Alli­son Daw­son, Olivia Evans and Spencer Mohney will per­form in the Main Tent dur­ing Sat­ur­day after­noon. And Forge Garrabrant will have an area set up near the Fire Depart­ment for his Eagle Scout project to raise money ($1,500 to $2,000) to buy a defib­ril­la­tor for the township.

For those inter­ested in antiq­ui­ties and Native Amer­i­cans, Greg Pey­ton, flint-knapper, and Ralph Arms, Lenape story-teller, will be at Harlem Town­ship Days both Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. They will be joined on Sun­day by Thomas Grooms, a pre­his­toric pot­tery specialist.

On Sun­day, Nation­wide Insur­ance is spon­sor­ing a Car Show which will include clas­sic cars, trucks and street rods. Reg­is­tra­tion for this event is from 9 a.m. to 12 noon with the win­ners of the awards includ­ing Best of Show car, truck and street rod announced in the Main Tent at 3 p.m.

Can you imag­ine catch­ing a base­ball with­out a glove to pro­tect your hand? Plan to come to the noon game on Sun­day between the Ohio Vil­lage Muffins and Harlem Township’s home team to see base­ball played 1860’s style – no gloves, no cleats, no cussing and a few quirky rules (no slid­ing). It will be a gentleman’s game com­plete with tie-wearing players.

Some­time dur­ing the mid-afternoon on Sun­day, a med­ical heli­copter is sched­uled to land in the park­ing area south of the fire­house on the east side of Ohio 605.

In addi­tion to these new events at Harlem Town­ship Days, on Sat­ur­day this year there will be a trac­tor pull; a cake walk and pedal pull for chil­dren (plus other activ­i­ties); enter­tain­ment by jug­gler Matt Jer­gens, gui­tarist Steve Ball, Pete Con­rad of the Trav­el­ing Beat­le­burys; edu­ca­tional pre­sen­ta­tions on the Civil War by the Rose­crans Unit; and danc­ing with John War­gowsky. On Sun­day there will be a pan­cake break­fast fol­lowed by a non-denominational church ser­vice pre­sented by Pas­tor Bud; a trac­tor slow race and quick start con­test; and enter­tain­ment by Sean Erick­son, singer and song­writer. We will also have food ven­dors and craft ven­dors join­ing us for the week­end. Hope you will join us, too.

Harlem Town­ship Days: Sat­ur­day, August 18 (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Sun­day, August 19 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), Com­mu­nity Park, Cen­ter Vil­lage (5 miles north of New Albany on Ohio 605). Visit the town­ship web­site, < www.harlemtwp.com >, for sched­ule and details.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 15 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.