An 'awesome' festival

NEW LONDON — Another successful New London Firelands Labor Day Festival is in the books, with all activities going off as planned. Park Superintendent Joe Thomas called the weather, the crowds and the many activities, "awesome" and the three days, "a great weekend." The Saturday morning 5K attracted 140 runners with Aiman Scullion of Cuyahoga Falls winning the men's race with a time of 15:05 and Alyssa Thomas of New London winning the women's race in 17:05. The Rotary-sponsored parade featured over 60 entries and included businesses, organizations, political candidates and more. The Touche Farms/NL Ruritans received the award for the outstanding float, with the Lifewise and United Methodist floats placing second. Firelands Festival Queen Leah Willis reigned over the weekend, assisted by her court. Willis was first runner-up in last year's competition and this year was named Miss Community Service, as well as queen. Her court consisted of first runner-up Bella Osterland and second runner-up Rhema Thomas, also named Miss Congeniality. Other contestants included Chloe Cooke, Morgan Shepherd, Josalyn Ives and Amelia Mitchell. One of the weekend duties for the queen and her court was serving as judges for the cupcake baking contest, which was won by Oaklynn Goostree. Second and third place went to Morgan King and Damon Ford. This year's kid games included a spoon race, a sack race, a 3-legged race, a water cup race, a water balloon toss and the always popular pizza eating contest. First-place winners included Ella Chaffins, Levi Knudsen, Ryder Chandley, Ethan Hicks, Mason Cowie, Oaklynn Goostree, Mia Evans, Max Fenik, Kory Rowland, Evan Smith, Nathan Willis, Michael Stevens, Carter Paramore, Luke Chaffins, Brantley Chaffins, Noah Starkey, Brooklyn Williams, Brooklyn Cowie, Tiffany Cowie, Jack Wright, Charles Paramore, Autumn Fry, Camdynn Dalton, Logan Wade, Tanner Chandley, Isaac Mitchell, Kurt Detterman, Alex Marsh, Bode Robuck, Ivan Willis, Brooklynn Stevens and Scott Cumberledge. One of the final events of the festival was the installation of the new members of the New London Park Hall of Fame. These were Dick Sutherland, Jim Mitchell, Emory Bateson, Winston White and Jim Van Sickle, all who were big supporters of the village's park system. They join last year's inductees, Lovell Hileman, Chuckie Thomas, Bob and Laura Wilson and Homer Johnson. The weekend officially ended, as it always does, with the spectacular fireworks display put on by New London native Terry Granneman. Many other events went on during the festival including horse competitions, softball, horseshoe, cornhole, bingo, tractor pull, demo derby and the OSTPA Pull. Thomas thanked everyone involved in these activities, plus the police, ambulance service, council members, park board members, village employees, vendors, ride workers and the hundreds of volunteers who gave their time and energy to make this one of the best Firelands Festival ever. Editor's note: This story has been updated.