Good temperatures, partly sunny skies and all-around good vibes helped shape another successful McCandless Community Day celebration, the town\u2019s 25th to be exact, as folks near and far enjoyed a parade, rides, live music and a flawless fireworks show at the end.<\/p>\n
The celebration was extra meaningful this year because it took place during the town\u2019s 175 anniversary year.<\/p>\n
McCandless residents Hannah and Daniel August have attended the event for the past three years, ever since their son, Kyle, 3, was born. He was smile-deep in an ice cream cone while his baby brother, Oscar, 7 months, played on a blanket at the baseball field adjacent to Town Hall off Grubbs Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe enjoy all of the free activities. We love the bounce house, and the parade was wonderful,\u201d Hannah August said.<\/p>\n
She joined a steady stream of visitors to Devlin Memorial Park, where food and beverage vendors, informational booths, live music and wagon rides were on-hand. All were a short stroll away from a handful of rides at the nearby Lorrain Rogers Soccer Field.<\/p>\n
A parade kicked off at 3:15 p.m. Participants included the town\u2019s volunteer fire departments, McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority, other local fire departments, military service members and the North Allegheny Marching Bands.<\/p>\n
Even Smokey Bear showed up, standing vigilant in the back of a pickup and holding his signature shovel.<\/p>\n
Two skydivers dropped by in the late afternoon onto a marked area at the baseball field.<\/p>\n
Everything went as planned, according to Lizz Venanzi, who was hired as the town\u2019s new community engagement manager earlier this year.<\/p>\n
For her first McCandless Community Day, Venanzi said she enjoyed the festivities as much as the rest of the crowd, including listening to North Allegheny\u2019s Hosack and Ingomar fifth grade choir students sing the national anthem, watching the parade and enjoying a front-row view at Devlin Fields as the skydivers made their landing.<\/p>\n
Venanzi said the children she encountered were excited as they discovered each new activity.<\/p>\n
The moments that seemed to stand out included the \u201creturn of the parade, the live music and, of course, the fireworks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the opening performance to the final celebration, the day unfolded in a way that kept the energy and excitement going from start to finish,\u201d Venanzi said.<\/p>\n
Next up for McCandless is the town\u2019s Winterfest, scheduled for Dec. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good temperatures, partly sunny skies and all-around good vibes helped shape another successful McCandless Community Day celebration, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-300662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}