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Fest kicks off fun in the sun

‘We’ll come all three nights and have a blast’

Photos: 2009 Fenwick Festival

By Danielle Wilson, Staff Writer Updated 1:11 AM Saturday, June 27, 2009

Local families beat the 90-degree heat to have a good time at the start of the Fenwick Festival.

Amy DeBiasi’s boys count down the days until the festival begins as soon as school ends each year. The 57th annual event began Friday, June 26, at the school on Ohio 122. “We’ll come all three nights and have a blast,” said the 34-year-old Middletown mother of four. Her husband, Fred, is a Fenwick graduate and the couple have attended the event annually for years.

Parking lots that were nearly full of cars by 9 p.m. showed that folks didn’t let the heat spoil their fun.

The dunking booth had been absent from the festival, but was new and improved this year after a weeklong tune-up.

Fenwick junior Joey Robinson and English teacher Bob Herber landed in the water more than a couple times, and squirted friends in the crowd with water guns.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Bill Becker, who ran the booth when his children attended Fenwick.

Woody Withrow originally built the booth about two decades ago for Middletown’s All American Weekend. It was rebuilt this year with help from Cohen Brothers Inc.

Austin Young and Crystal Carroll, both 24, usually enjoy beer and gambling at the festival, but not this year.

Carroll is expecting the couple’s child in September and decided to hold off on brews this time around. Instead, the couple sported petunias they won early in the night.

The 10 winners of a $50 raffle will each get a key to try in a 1966 Dodge Coronet convertible. The car goes home with the person whose key starts the engine. Other winners will receive a $500 parting gift.

A six-person hot tub or a $5,000 cash prize goes to the winner of a smaller raffle with tickets for $15 each or two tickets for $25.

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The Fenwick folks always have their act together. Perhaps we can enlist their ideas and services to teach the city leaders of Middletown a thing or two about how to plan something successful in this town. But, then again, they would have to have someone on the other end that is receptive.

VietVet
10:34 AM, 6/27/2009

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