Last week, it became PN’s Digital Editor Tim Penick’s task to create a game suitable and fun to attract visitors to the Positively Naperville booth at the 2013 Ribfest Expo. With an idea for a game of skill and chance, he purchased a kid-sized easel with a dry erase board, a wooden crate, 20 wiffle balls and a variety of prizes.
This week on July 3, Penick set up the game, now known as “PN’s Wiffle Ball Game of Angles,” across the front of Ribfest Expo Booth No. 47, just south of Martin Avenue.
The object of the game, free to play, is for every player to pitch three wiffle balls toward the easel, banking each shot at an angle so the ball drops into the crate. To score, the ball must hit the easel first before it falls into the crate. Sounds easy enough. Looks easy enough.
Any player who dropped one of the three balls into the crate won a prize. For starters, prizes included several hundred assorted items—water blasters, coloring books, PN playing cards, bubbles, Cock Robin t-shirts and American flags.
The first evening between 4 and 10PM, after several hundred players pitched their skill, only one youngster had hit three in a row.
Day 2 Game Players
After wondering if the game were too difficult, PN decided to stick to the original rules of the game. By mid-afternoon on July 4, 18 players had hit three in a row and the stash of prizes nearly was depleted because so many individuals hit a prize-winning one.
The challenge, however, especially among teens, became not so much to win a prize, but to hit three in a row. When not successful, teens returned repeatedly to try and try again, putting a different spin or arch on the ball as they banked their shots.
“That’s when we decided to give everyone ‘bragging rights’ who hit three in row,” noted PN’s publisher. “We wrote everyone’s name on the dry erase board with the promise to be mentioned in a Positively Naperville story. And we took a few photos.”
Soon the board was covered with names of a skillful group of men, women and youngsters: Phil Hyma, Patrick O’Connor, Matt Bray, Jack Doherty, Jason Schnack, Brandon Schnack, Andrew Parnell, Steven Matusik, Scott Wichman, Gabby Vincent, Panfilo Cruz, Michael Sudol, Jacob Kurowski, Janine Baird, Caitlin Zeller, Chris Meilinger, Lokesh Kataria and Ian Vesely.
For more than three hours, Ryan Brown, age 8, held the record as the youngest hitter of three in a row.
After Charley Bey hit four in a row, the challenge became to beat four, a record that held for about an hour.
Then seven-year-old Kaitlyn Blauvelt stepped up to the blue line. Visiting with her family from Florida, the young girl masterfully hit six in a row to the awe of onlookers. When would anyone beat six in a row?
Within minutes her older brother, Jonathan Blauvelt, stole the lead with seven in a row. That record was not broken for hours—and all the while other individual names were jotted on the board after they hit three in a row.
The board included the names of Justin Blauvelt, Jordan Mikel, Adam Rebholz, Ryan Morton, Sam Reczek, Duncan Collard, Clare Collard, Sara Hartney, Ryan Driscol, Joey Moscato, Jessie Denny, Gema Guillorg, J. Charly Zach and Binay Maharjan.
Then at dusk, just before the fireworks were scheduled to begin, PN prepared to close the booth, noting the success of one last player, Morgan Wynn, who hit more than three in a row. Morgan and her sister, Megan, coaxed their father, Jerry Wynn, to try his luck.
Wouldn’t you know? Jerry Wynn hit eight in a row! Eight in a row on the Fourth of July! And Wynn became the big winner of the day.
PN presented Wynn, a resident of Richton Park who has fond memories of Cock Robin ice cream, with a Be One in a Million Cock Robin t-shirt.
With three days remaining of 2013 Ribfest, visitors are welcome to stop at PN’s Expo Booth. Let the game begin!
Day 3 Game Players
Shortly after Ribfest opened its gates at noon on Fri., July 5, the PN Expo Booth was set for another day of fun connections and games.
While PN’s editor was wiping off the names written on the dry-erase board from the previous day, an eager young man, Nathan Flood, stood waiting to challenge the eight-in-a-row record achieved the evening before by Jerry Wynn. What a ringer! Flood didn’t miss! The first thing Friday afternoon, Flood broke the record with a score of nine balls in a row.
Though hundreds of individuals of all ages stepped up to the blue line to pitch, no one came close to topping Flood’s record all day.
Contestants who pitched three in a row were Donny Navarro, Griffith Pilgren, Cooper Thunstead, Trevor Walker, Miguel Garcia, Cinnamon Bergeron, Jackson Kozari, Richard Cruz, Daniel Zorn and Bryson Ludke.
Thanks to everyone who stopped at the booth just to say hello!
2013 Ribfest Expo
Just as all the Ribfest Expos in the past, the 2013 Ribfest Expo is an opportunity to engage passers-by with hands-on interactive exposure to local enterprises, products/services and more. Positively Naperville has exhibited a number of times to put its face before the community, just for the fun of it.
“Since our monthly publication is distributed at no charge without subscription to homeowners throughout the city, we’re always curious to see who’s reading,” said publisher Stephanie Penick. “The feedback is usually rewarding, even from individuals who don’t live here. This year we heard from many folks outside of Naperville who said they follow us on Twitter. Others noted they enjoy our Facebook posts. The night we set up, Julie Berkowicz from Knoch Knolls reminded us about the 4th of July Parade in her subdivision.”
Noting that in the past PN had received info about the Knoch Knolls parade that salutes military service on America’s birthday, Berkowicz said she’d e-mail the details later that evening. Tim Penick posted the news on Facebook with a photo of the Berkowicz family reading PN.
Most of the other feedback was positive. Several readers from Plainfield said they pick up the publication when they visit the 95th Street Y or Casey’s Foods in Naperville.
In year’s past, the Ribfest Expo also has provided a chance to help residents connect with some of PN’s sponsors who are also members of IndieBound Naperville, a group of small independently-owned local businesses such as Anderson’s Bookshop, Dog Patch Pet & Feed, Minuteman Press, Second City Web Design, Colbert’s Custom Framing, Cafe Buonaro’s and the list goes on. The “shop and dine locally” message always runs along the line of a quote from Dan Casey, owner of Casey’s Food, an independent butcher and green grocer. “Support your local business community and you’ll always live in a nice town.”
According to Exchange Club member Mick Collard, East Gate Captain at Ribfest, the big deal at the 2013 Expo arrived in a large refrigerated trailer filled with yogurt—many cartons and cartons of a new brand of Greek yogurt named Muller Greek Corner. The distributor hoped to reach potential customers directly by passing out flyers with coupons and free samples.
Collard, who has been a gate captain for 10 of his 15 years in the Exchange Club said he had never experienced such a promotion at the Expo. “They gave away free cases of the new yogurt and many people were loaded up as they left the park from our gate. It was big excitement.”
Collard added that the East Gate at Martin Avenue is always easy to access and easy to enter. Plus, it’s right in the center of Knoch Park, opening into the Ribfest Expo.
The 2013 Ribfest Expo tents are located in very high traffic areas of Knoch Park.
RELATED STORY POSTED JULY 7: The Rest of the Ribfest Expo Wiffle Ball Game Winners
