AUBURN - The city was decked out in its best for its first Founders Day, as thousands of people gathered Saturday along the parade route and outside Auburn's city hall to enjoy a family outing and get a glimpse of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the guest of honor for this year's celebration of Alaskan statehood.
An estimated crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 people, according to the Auburn Police Department, filled the downtown area along with dozens of vendors, entertainers and other festival participants.
Included in the crowd was James and Dorothy Bailey, Auburn residents just up from Florida, who said they came for conflicting reasons. 鈥淚 just came for the parade,鈥 James said, 鈥渂ut my wife wanted to see Sarah Palin.鈥
Mary Kilmer, who came to see Palin, said she was also interested in history. Auburn launched Founders Day this year with plans to make it an annual celebration of city history. This year's event focused on the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood because of Auburn's connections to the 49th state. Auburn resident William Seward organized the purchase of the land that became Alaska when he was U.S. Secretary of State for President Andrew Johnson.
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Many people in the crowd said they were impressed with all that was offered, from the parade to the Palin speech to the festival.
鈥淚 didn't know all this was going to happen,鈥 Jessica Freddette, of Auburn, said. She pulled her two children, Riley, 1, and Alexis, 4, in their wagon from Oak Creek Town Homes to see the parade. 鈥淚 wanted to see Sarah,鈥 she said.
Sheli Graney, chairwoman of the 14-person Founders Day Committee that planned Saturday's festivities, said she couldn't have been more pleased with how the event unfolded.
鈥淪eeing all the smiling faces and happy families - this was all worth it,鈥 she said during the afternoon, when there was still a sizable crowd downtown but significantly smaller than the number of people who were there for the parade that kicked off the day at 11 a.m.
Graney said it had been a hectic last few days prior to Saturday, so she was relieved when the event finally arrived.
鈥淭his morning, as people started coming in, as the vendors gradually were getting setting up, as everything was falling into place, I relaxed more and more,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was hitting me that this was really going to happen.鈥
Tom Minnow, a Vietnam veteran who had marched in the parade, said he figured the crowd was about three times larger than the annual Memorial Day gathering in Auburn, one of the city's biggest events each year.
鈥淲hat a fantastic turnout,鈥 he said.
Abraham Lincoln (played by Jack Baylis) was circulating among the crowd before Palin spoke. Baylis became Lincoln after friends kept noting the natural resemblance. He's 6 feet 2 inches tall, so he began modestly impersonating him and now wears authentic outfits and knows his history to attend historical events. He was invited to the Seward House for Palin's visit, as were two other impersonators, General Sherman and William Seward.
After Palin's speech at city hall, which followed the parade, a number of people who came for only the parade and a peek at Palin left the area. There were about 50 people waiting for a shuttle bus on Dill Street immediately after the speech.
Vendors along Genesee Street and in State Street Mall were generally pleased with tourist traffic. Polly Skrobinski said her ice cream truck was doing well, with soft serve ice cream cones the top seller.
Free attractions also did well.
At 3:30 p.m. Francesca Fiola, Victoria Shaw, and Michael Shaw were frantically sifting for gold nuggets in large containers of sand outside the bank building at State and Genesee Streets. Francesca found seven, Michael had one and Victoria was still sifting for her first.
Seward House interns Paul Schmitt, of Genoa, a student at Buffalo State, and Horatio Short, another intern and student at Florida State, were handing out commemorative wooden coins in exchange for the nuggets. Pencils and stickers were other options. They said a number of adult collectors had come by and they gave them one of the coins to complete their collections.
A bald eagle and peregrine falcon were visited by at least 500 people as they perched on State Street to advertise Paul Schnell's Institute for Environmental Learning in Hilton.
Lena Misuraca of St. Francis of Assisi Church said her group had sold at least 750 pizza frites and would continue until all 200 pounds of the dough was gone.
Sacred Heart and St. Ann's, both churches in Owasco, were selling pulled pork and drinks for a youth group trip to Kansas City and for Mission from the Heart's project in the Dominican Republic. They had sold between 250 and 300 drinks and sandwiches as of mid-afternoon.
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
