Celebrating the green downtown
Just because they didn't dye the Auglaize River green didn't mean Wapakoneta wasn't going to do something for St. Patrick's Day weekend.
So organizers held their own Olympics Saturday afternoon. This was the first time Wapakoneta held the event. The goal of the games was to collect as many green beads as possible based on the assortment of games in different shops.
The event was organized by the group Wapakoneta Shops, a group of merchants who work together for advertising in the hopes of attracting potential customers to town.
The organization has been around for over 20 years.
Jackie Martell, director of the Wapakoneta Area Chamber of Commerce, was happy with the large turnout, although she wasn't surprised parking was difficult before everything even started.
"It is a wonderful, beautiful day and Wapakoneta's shops have really joined together so well to come up with wonderful ideas to bring people into their shops and into the restaurants and enjoy all there is to do," she said.
The events started at noon, with more than 20 participating shops featuring a variety of games, including a Nerf shooting challenge for beads, a wheel where participants could spin for beads and a board full of suckers (pick the green and you win - you guess it - beads).
"Every business chose their own game to play, something fun, something easy," she said.
By 4 p.m., every team had to check in at Urban Elephant for an official bead count to decide who collected the most and therefore won. Each store determined who qualified for bead necklaces
Prizes included beer mugs and gift certificates.
Andrew Schmackers and his parents were visiting from Chickasaw and had no idea
what was happening until Schmackers decided to play a Nerf shooting game at Cloud 9.
"We might have to check it out," Danielle Schmackers, Andrew's mother, said.
"We're going to go down the street, look for that shamrock in the window," Joe Schmackers said.
The family planned on spending a few hours exploring.
Kylie Presar, owner of State and Local, was happy to have an event like this.
"I think it's great that we're able to… come together and throw these events," Presar said. "It's a great way to… support one another, support our town, support our eateries and local retailers."
Presar decided to have a wheel participants could spin to win.
"It sounded like a fun idea," she said. "… It was an easy thing to do, everyone can spin a wheel."
Shelby Oakes was there with her girl scout troop and didn't know about the event.
"We were doing a walkabout where we were walking around selling cookies… and we just decided we were gonna participate," Oakes said.
Megan Steinke was there with her friends to compete as a team.
"It's fun," Steinke said. "I like being with my family and it's right down the road."
As the event was new, her group of four also planned on competing in every activity.
The event was free to everyone, and Martell hopes this will become an annual event.