Streetsboro Family Days is Born
Streetsboro Family Days Inc. was born in mid July, 2001, on a beautiful warm and sunny morning. I was
sitting in the Mayor’s office sipping on a cup of coffee talking to my good friend, Joe Collica, then Mayor
of Streetsboro. Joe and I grew up in Cleveland and were reminiscing about the “good old days”, when we attended school, played sports, our first taste of beer, and bragged about tucking our first cigarette pack into our T-shirt sleeve…and of course girls. I said “Joe, remember how we could hardly wait for the Bazaar to open at Benedictine High School”? This meant the beginning of summer with fun rides, games, and of course girls. What great memories.
Joe asked “What do we have in Streetsboro”? At that time, I was the very proud President of our
Streetsboro Junior Baseball league of 600 plus kids. “Is that it”? He replied. “That’s it” I said. “You know
Chuck, this community has very little to look forward to as we did as youngsters.” “Streetsboro is still growing and we have a lot of problems to solve here, that’s why I ran for Mayor, hoping to move this city forward.”
“How are you going to do that” I asked. ” “We don’t even have a Bazaar here!” We both laughed but I said, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a Bazaar here in Streetsboro?” A place where family’s can take their kids to ride the merry-go-round, play games, eat elephant ears, and enjoy live entertainment on a real stage?” “How are you going to do that” Joe asked. I said “We’ll get a few volunteers and do it!” Joe said “Do it and I’ll back you with whatever you need.”
As our conversation continued, the Mayor’s secretary, sitting nearby commented by adding that you would never get enough volunteers to do this. “We’ve tried to do some things in the past, but you just can’t get enough volunteers to help.” I said “I think I can get enough volunteers to help.”
On June 12, 2003 Streetsboro Family Days was born, and we opened our event at City Park. Unfortunately,
it rained three and a half days of our four day event. What a disaster. But in spite of the weather, we were
able to pay our bills and ended up in the black.
And here we are….22 years later, and still in the black. There is no doubt we owe the success to all our dedicated Streetsboro Family Days volunteers. We have proven what can happen when you have a bunch of wonderful, giving, hardworking folks all with the same goal in mind: to share their old memories, and create new ones with clean entertainment, and fun for the entire family.
I hope to see you and your family at “Streetsboro Family Days 2024”
Warmest regards,
Chuck Kocisko
Founder