Really Special Events
Like most weekends in August, this one started sunny and pleasant, with a chance to be hot and humid. The Auth clan—all seven of us—rose early, which is getting harder to do now that we have teenagers amongst us, shuffled to the mini-van and headed northeast to Twinsburg, Ohio.
By 8 a.m., we were gathered on the town square, surrounded by thousands of enthusiastic twins—identical, fraternal, old and young—most dressed as some sort of superhero, all ready to parade a half-mile down Main Street to the Twinsburg High School and Twins Days festival grounds.
The clash of the high-school band announced it was time to move out and the whole, boisterous bunch ambled forward, morphing into something resembling a parade.
The first year we walked in the parade, our twins rode in a double stroller and looked annoyed at all the noise and attention. This year, they walked and took in the strange surroundings but didn’t really understand they were in the parade.
Instead, they spent all of their time grabbing candy off the ground and begging it off other parade-goers who were throwing it to the crowd on the tree lawn.
As a scribe for the world of parks and recreation, I couldn’t help but feel proud that this event was run by Twinsburg’s Parks and Recreation Department and marvel at its success.
As my family walked, I snapped pictures with our new ParksNReviews.com mobile app and made a note to dig up the history on this event when I got home.
Turns out, Twins Days began in 1976 and has been running continuously since. That first year, 37 sets of twins gathered for a flag-raising ceremony and dedication of the first picnic shelter at Glenn Chamberlin Park. The next year, 38 sets of twins participated.
By 2012, the event had become the largest annual gathering of twins in the world and the event schedule had grown to include a Friday evening “Wiener Roast,” Twins Golf Outing, Saturday Morning Parade, Festival, Twins Research Project and so much more.
The event has really grown up—garnering regional and national media exposure—and making the march past the bandstand (where the MC simply spends all her time asking folks where they’re from) a very interesting experience.
As we walked past, we heard people yell South Carolina, Alaska, England, Australia and, of course, Twinsburg.
This event and all the ones your department creates and runs inspired us to add Event Information to the ParksNReviews.com Mobile App. Now, if you choose, you can add all the events taking place at your parks to your ParksNReviews.com mobile app listings AND set a date when you want all users to be notified of the event.
It’s a cool feature--one we’re sure will help you turn your next event into the biggest in the world!
Till Next Month…
Rodney J. Auth
Publisher
PS: Scan the code in the magazine to download the ParksNReviews.com Mobile App or visit the App Store or Google Play Store to download. It’s free.
P.P.S. Still haven’t added your parks to the app? Log in to your Insider account (username is on the mailing label) and get started. It’s easy and it’s free.