SHEFFIELD LAKE — Sitting around, talking to neighbors, visiting with residents who had long since moved away and enjoying a cool breeze off of Lake Erie on a warm summer day — that was the first Sheffield Lake Community Days festival held 47 years ago.

The rides were primitive — city construction vehicles were brought in for residents to try. But the food was fresh and the atmosphere was neighborly.

Today, the outward appearance of the festival may have changed — the rides, for example, are much more exciting — but that homecoming theme remains.

The best part of the festival, which runs in earnest Wednesday through July 12, is just meeting up with old friends, says Jo Ann McFall, secretary of the Community Civic Council, which has run the festival since the 1970s.

“There is a real homey, small-town atmosphere here,” McFall says. “People get to see their neighbors over and over again.”

All of the booths are sponsored by local civic groups — Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, church groups and others.

But don’t let that description fool you. Sheffield Lake Community Days isn’t a tiny festival — with 10,000 residents populating 3 square miles, how could it be?

About eight kiddie rides will be set up on the parking lot of the Shoreway Plaza, along with seven larger rides for pre-teens and teens.

Food booths will offer everything from pizza to gyros to elephant ears and cotton candy. And the parade, with the theme of Youth in Our Community this year, will feature veterans, safety forces, bands, horses, majorettes and classic cars.

Steve Kovach, president of the Community Civic Council, says parade night is his favorite part of the weekend.

“There is a lot of action when we get going and open on Wednesday night,” he says. “Once we hit the parade on Thursday, it’s like a roller coaster ride. We’re at the top of the hill and it’s all a thrill from there. We’re home free.”

Organizers have diligently preserved the community-based festival each year, knowing how important it is to residents past and present.

“You see a lot of people who grew up here and were kids when they came and now they are adults bringing their kids back,” he says.

And this year, that sense of home may be more important than ever.

“With the economy the way it is, people may not have enough money to go on a big vacation to even Cedar Point or Disney World, but they may have enough to go to a couple of small festivals,” Kovach says. “In times like this, you can definitely get a little better crowd.”

And that’s good for the community in more ways than one.

All of the money raised, between $25,000 and $40,000 depending on the weather, during the festival goes right back to the organizations sponsoring the booths and all of the money raised from the rides — after paying the ride provider — goes back to the Community Civic Council, which uses the funds for improvements to the Sheffield Lake Community Civic Center.

Contact Christina Jolliffe at 329-7155 or metro@chroniclet.com. 

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