Old-fashioned fun will take center stage when the Hellam Carnival returns after taking last year off due to the pandemic. The carnival will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 25 and 26, from 6 to 10 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 27 and 28, from 5 to 10 p.m. in the baseball fields off of West Beaver Street in Hallam Borough.
"We have nightly entertainment, and we have some really great bands this year," said Mark Potosky, chairman of the carnival. "We have food vendors, lots of rides and games. We have a lot of nonprofits who will be there as well, like the Boy Scouts and Lions Club."
Friday night's festivities will feature a car show, with trophies awarded in various categories. The car show will begin at 5 p.m. On Saturday morning, a horseshoe tournament will be held, and monetary prizes will be presented. To register for the horseshoe tournament, contact Barry Sweitzer at 717-755-4406. Potosky said that ride-all-night wristbands will be available each evening during the carnival and that admission to the carnival is free.
On Saturday evening, the carnival will wrap up with fireworks at 9:30 p.m. "They will be really outstanding fireworks," Potosky stated. "It will be something to see."
The carnival started more than a decade ago, when members of Hellam Recreation were looking for an event to bring the community together.
"There used to be a carnival back in the day and Phil Smith, the township supervisor, said, 'Why don't we have a carnival again?'" Potosky recalled. "Everybody jumped on board, because we all liked the idea. As a recreation group, we did so many activities for the youths, but we didn't really have any activities for adults or anyone else in the community. We felt the carnival was one way we could reach part of the community our organization wasn't touching."
Although Hellam Recreation no longer organizes the carnival, the event's mission has remained the same. It's a chance to bring people together to socialize and have fun, Potosky said.
"We also have the support of the fire department and ambulance and the fire police, who direct traffic," he said. "We have policemen who walk through and make sure everything is going smoothly. The carnival is a total community endeavor."
Leave a Review