Hayride volunteers Maddie Knightly (left) and Bailee Suarez get everyone set for a fun ride through Pocopson as part of the annual Pocopson Founders Day, Sunday, which organizers said broke attendance records.
POCOPSON — It took volunteers, and lots of them, to make the annual Pocopson Founders’ Day a record-breaking success. The Sept. 28 event, its organizers say, was completely indebted to more than 60 volunteers who handled everything from directing traffic to directing the children’s games. They set up, kept up and cleaned up the event and helped host a record-breaking number of visitors (more than 2,000).
Volunteers from the township, the Chester County Youth Center (CCYC), local Boy Scouts, students, and many players from the Unionville High School football team were enthusiastic to help man the hayrides, the games, bingo, the moon bounces, and to be a part of a fun-filled community event. They dressed in their red, white and blue to promote the patriotic theme and worked double shifts in the hot sun.
Volunteers from the Unionville High School football team helped with parking cars at the event. From left, Thomas Mallon, Sam Gangel and Lenny Perone were on hand to help everyone park safely.
“The volunteers never complained and stayed overtime when asked. They promoted a great sense of community,” said Tom Hagen, the parking coordinator.
The committee members; Colleen McKinney (Chair), Christine Hagen (Co-Chair), Karen Cresta (Secretary), Lori Driver, Judy Love, Katee Boyle and Mary Veale, began planning for the event back in February. They reserved sponsorships, donations, the band, food vendors, a petting zoo…and a record-breaking number of local artisans, vendors and business owners (more than 30).
Local residents check out a horse and rider from The Radnor Hunt, who once again were a highlight of the day.
Ricki Stumpo, the Chair of the Board of Supervisors for Pocopson Township, took the stage on the day of the event, to express thanks for all of the hard work and effort.
“This day could not have happened without the volunteers,” she said.
McKinney, the events chair, said she could not agree more with Stumpo’s sentiments.
Josh Komorowski and his band kept things rocking throughout the day.
“The success of this event relies heavily on getting and organizing volunteers,” she said. “The committee and I are so very thankful for the great job they all did. The volunteers made Pocopson Founders’ Day a record-breaking success in every way. We were lucky to have so many willing volunteers to help with the growing amount of visitors and vendors this year. They were awesome.”
