- Features
- By Todd Stumpf
- June 25, 2023
- 1230
Every Fourth of July, Orrville becomes home of the biggest single-age softball tournament in the United States and a mid-town carnival to celebrate Independence Day. You couldn’t have one without the other.
Well, you could, but things just wouldn’t be the same. And if you did, that one would have to be the softball tourney.
The annual Fire in the Sky 14-and-under softball extravaganza again will be the centerpiece of Orrville’s city-wide celebration of the Fourth. Coupled with the 12U 5-Alarm Classic a week earlier, softball has become a primary money-maker for the rest of the week’s festivities, notably what is billed as “one of the largest and best-known fireworks displays in all of Ohio.”
“If that tournament goes away at some point, probably the rest of it does too,” Orrville Mayor Dave Handwerk said. “The tournament is predominantly what has paid for the fireworks. The parade doesn’t even cover the extra police we have to have.”
With scores of softball teams bringing in hundreds of players, and even more parents, siblings and other associated folks, the tournament vs. carnival becomes a bit of a chicken-vs.-egg argument. Does the carnival draw softball teams or does the softball support the carnival?
The reality is, it’s both.
One could probably go on without the other, but why find out? The two have turned into such a great combined force that Orrville has become a place to be over summer’s biggest holiday.
“It’s a great thing,” Handwerk said,. “You’re very proud of what that’s turned into. But people have to realize the effort that goes into that for these now 25-plus guys in the fire department. Those guys take a week basically away from their weeks to do that when everyone else is taking a holiday.”
Taking a holiday from the holiday is something the main contributors – the Orrville Firefighters Association – will gladly do. It’s a sacrifice, yes, but one for the greater good and they’re happy to do it if it means good things for the community.
“The key to the long term is, you have a lot of us younger guys that are starting to step up and will continue to step up,” OFFA President Chris Parker said. “We take a lot of the credit, but the thing to remember is that our wives, our kids, our friends are also down there all the time. It’s really turned into more of a family weekend rather than just an Association weekend. We just have to keep it going.”
Parker has been involved from an OFFA standpoint for five years. OFFA Vice President Craig Hostetler has been around Orrville’s Fourth of July fun for nearly all of his 35 years on the planet. He started as a kid and has kept coming back ever since.
“I’ve never known anything else in the summers in Orrville,” he said.
The firefighters do a lot. And they deserve a ton of credit. They do not, however, ask for it. In fact, they like to point in other directions.
The Fire in the Sky and associated events have more than 60 sponsors this year. Four levels of sponsorship are offered. This year Chief Level sponsors include Ventrac, All Creatures Veterinary Clinic & Lodge, Bellstores, Gary’s Drive Thru, & Mast-Lepley.
“Without our sponsors we would be nothing,” Hostetler said. “All of our sponsors mean something. We’re grateful for anything we can get. I don’t care if it’s 50 cents or $50,000.”
The four days of the Fire in the Sky have become a major income producer for Orrville. Literally thousands of people come to the city over the course of the long weekend, which this year starts on July 4 and winds up with the fireworks on July 8.
Handwerk said some members of the firefighters association tried to come up with an exact figure a few years ago.
“The numbers were kind of staggering,” the mayor said. “It’s a lot.”
Now the firefighters are tasked with keeping the event going, making sure it gets better, if not bigger (though that usually happens organically) year after year. This year, Parker said, that means more and bigger rides.
Things should ratchet up a bit more in 2024, which will be the 40th anniversary of the parade and 20th renewal of the softball tournament.
“So next year we will be even bigger than this year,” he said.
All while coming off without a hitch year after year. Handwerk said that’s natural, given the routine it has become for the OFFA.
There are and will be glitches in any event this big. Most of them, though, will be undetectable to the patrons and guests.
“Invisible, that’s a good word,” Handwerk said. “There’s issues every year. There’s this, there’s that. That kind of stuff happens. Overall, for most people, you see it’s just a well run, well-oiled machine. The guys who organize it are all creeping up in age. That would be a concern that one day they might say they’re done doing this.”
Both Parker and Hostetler don’t seem to feel that’s going to be an issue any time soon. There’s a lot of pride involved. People involved in tradition-rich activities tend to not want them to fall by the wayside and the area is littered with them.
It seems every week of the summer features a festival of some kind in and around Wayne County, from Rittman’s Sleepwalker Festival to the Rogues Hollow Festival in Doylestown, to this one. They’re not one-size fits all and nobody’s battling for supremacy; they all want to put on a great show.
“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter,” Hosteler said. “Fireworks has always been the thing. We want to be the biggest and best. But it doesn’t really matter. Everyone should support their hometown people.”
