THE BALLOON MAN

Dan Rice Days highlight Girard history

 

Volunteer Kathy Lucas serves funnel cakes for the Rice Avenue Community Library during Dan Rice Days in Girard on Aug. 4.
 GREG WOHLFORD\/ERIE TIMES-NEWS
from:  goerie.com
August 4, 2012
By RON LEONARDI, Erie Times-News
GIRARD, PA -- Temperatures Saturday were well into the 80s at 8:30 a.m. when the Dan Rice Days Festival 5K run began on Mechanic Street.
Dave Wehr, 65, of Girard, opted to speed-walk it, finishing in 37 minutes, 25 seconds.
By midafternoon, with temperatures in the low 90s and humidity high, Wehr rested on a bench in Wells Park along West Main Street, trying to stay hydrated as he listened to the Gem City Jazz Ensemble perform on the main stage.
"This is almost a homecoming for the whole town,'' Wehr said of the three-day festival, which began Thursday and ended Saturday.
It honors Dan Rice, a circus showman who married a Girard woman and lived in the community in the 1850s.
"A lot of people who don't live here anymore come home for this,'' Wehr said. "It's a good, small-town celebration.''
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http://www.goerie.com/article/20120805/NEWS02/308059910/Dan-Rice-Days-highlight-Girard-history