Letter to the Editor

Community made celebration a success

Friday, July 10, 2009

To the Editor:

For many of us, watching the weather report on July 4 brought a lot of mixed emotions.

We needed a good and steady rain, but we had a community celebration planned and rain was not in our forecast. As the day began we found a near record number of people participating in the annual Mike Rokicki walk/run. There were dogs of all sizes that were adorned with great costumes that paraded before our judges, and dedicated pinewood derby enthusiasts who competed for prizes. A few teams played some hoops, a few innings of softball were completed, and vendors were able to feed a few customers. There were even pies delivered for judging.

Fortunately, July 5 looked a lot more promising and as the weather cleared people started making their way to Robe-Ann Park to participate in "chapter 2" of this year's version of Celebrate 4.

Many thanks to Rod Weinschenk, his park staff and the employees of Sky Magic for all of their efforts to make this happen, seemingly, with little difficulty.

On behalf of the Friends of the Park and the citizens of the greater Greencastle community I would like to thank the many people, businesses and organizations who helped to make this year's 4th (and 5th) of July celebrations a success.

Our financial sponsors were: Banner Graphic, Duke Energy, Heartland Automotive, Wal-Mart Distribution Center, WREB, Greater Greencastle Chamber of Commerce, Headley Hardware, Cinergy MetroNet, Cripe Architects and Engineers, HBG Insurance & Bonds, Hendricks Power Cooperative, Jackson Hewitt, McDonald's, Old National Bancorp, Dr. Dale Oliver, Putnam Co. Convention & Visitors, ServiceMaster of Greencastle, Tri Kappa, York Automotive Group, Carpenters Local 859, Carol Coons, Crowe Horwath, Furniture AwareHouse, Hoosier Topics, AA Huber & Sons, Nancy Huber, Frank and Marie LaRoche, Murray and Associates, Wal-Mart Super Center.

Special thanks also to Phyllis Rokicki, Linda Huber and Shannon Norman, Ann Clark, Dr. John Scamahorn, Melanie Welker, Tina and Tom Sutherlin, Mary Ann Birt, Jackie Baughman, Boy Scout Troop 99, Jim Hardwick, Brian Pohlar, Putnam County Sheriff's Department, DePauw Police, the Greencastle Police Department, the Greencastle Fire Department, Greencastle's National Guard Alpha Battery, Putnam County Comprehensive Services, our musical entertainers and vendors, and all who came to celebrate our nation's freedom.

Mayor Sue Murray & Friends of the Park