A day for Arvonia’s community
Published 8:15 am Thursday, October 20, 2016
In its second year, Arvonia Community Day drew a fair crowd on the third Saturday of October despite being a day filled with other events in the area.
Jennifer Shumaker, president of the Arvonia Fire Department Auxiliary, which organized the event, and others on hand estimated about 200 people came out to enjoy the offerings at the Arvonia Fire Department. Events included live music, homemade food, a monster truck bounce house, tie-dye shirt-making, pumpkin-painting, arts and crafts and various other vendors.
“(Turnout) wasn’t as good as we’d like (it) to have been, but it was pretty good,” she said.
The event, which ran from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., featured the largest crowd between 11 a.m.-2 p.m., and Shumaker said most attending were from Buckingham County.
Shumaker said this is the second year the auxiliary has held a community day, “but this is probably the seventh year we’ve done an event.”
“We used to call it the Women’s Day Out, and we did breast cancer support, and we would call it that so that the women could come down here and have a good time,” she said. “And then we started realizing that the guys were coming, too, so we tried to make it more universal, and we included the kids.”
She described the event as both a fundraiser for the auxiliary and just a day for the community.
Those attending the event were not charged to use the bounce house. For pumpkin-painting and tie-dye shirt-making, those participating in the activities were simply charged enough to allow the auxiliary to cover the cost of providing materials.
Shumaker said food is probably where most of the money was made. There were no food vendors on hand, but the kitchen, homemade pulled-pork barbecue, cole slaw, hot dogs, baked beans, cakes and pies were offered.
Barry Snoddy and a band called All Problems Solved, which featured Worm Patterson and Floyd Reid, performed live.
Dr. Bryan Auten, founder and owner of Slate River Veterinary Clinic in Buckingham, was at the event 9-11 a.m. to hold a rabies clinic.
TRIAD, a cooperative effort focused on reducing crimes against seniors, had a presence at the event, and At Home Care Staffing came to do blood pressures.
Other vendors on hand included Thirty-One Gift, Pink Zebra, LuLaRue and A Little Bit of This & That, the latter of which belongs to Shumaker.
“We only had 11 vendors here, so it wasn’t as big as it has been in the past,” Shumaker said. “We have had 21. It’s just too much going on, and we can’t seem to pick a weekend where it’s not happening that way, so we’ve tried to keep this steady across. Every third Saturday in October is when we do this event, whatever day that falls on.”
That is the plan for next year’s Arvonia Community Day, as well.