Saline Summerfest Sentational

The Saline Summerfest rolled into downtown late Friday afternoon and maintained the momentum through late Saturday night with the Nine House Band. I got an early start at about 4:30 p.m., interviewing Saline artists Kelly Hagood and Carol McCullough as soon as I got there. Kelly makes sterling silver jewelry and Carol creates beautiful note cards. Check out one of four Summerfest videos on our Web site to learn more about these talented residents. Saline is fortunate to have such a wide variety of artistic talent.

After taking a short break from the heat back in our office, I returned to the festival to catch Teboe's Karate demonstration, Cottonwood Cloggers and Ann Arbor Dance Classics. Lucas Holliman, a Tiny Tiger in Taekwondo Saline, was adorable as he shadowed an instructor in front of a large crowd. The students at Dance Classics also impressed me with their talent.

I snapped pictures of Patricia Sholtiz, Maddie Montambeu and Emily Garcia in the cutest polka-dot outfits, and older students Aswathy Chennat, Rachel Brigell and Alli Zajac.

One of the most pride-filled moments for local leaders was a presentation organized by the Saline Area Chamber of Commerce featuring state Rep. Pam Byrnes, who read a proclamation from Gov. Jennifer Granholm about Saline's recent 59th ranking on CNN/Money Magazine's list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in the United States. On stage included some of the people who have had a hand in making Saline so great, including Mayor Gretchen Driskell, former Mayor Patrick Little, members of the City Council, Saline Downtown Director Art Trapp (who tells me he has read our blog), Wayne Clemens of the Saline Area Historical Society, Larry Oesterling of the Saline Area Chamber of Commerce and the police chief.

I returned on Saturday with my mom. We found some great jewelry at a Canton artist's booth and admired the classic cars at Saline Street Machines. Nick Vermet, a sponsor of the event and president of the club, was kind enough to speak on our video about the club, the event and his 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix. He has served as president of the group the last four years, just as along as he has lived in Saline. By 10 a.m. Saturday, he said about 85 cars had been registered and they were expecting another 20 or so.

Next up, my mom and I jumped on a trolley and joined the Saline Area Historical Society's "History in Motion" historic tour. Video of the tour, led by historian and researcher Bob Lane, is posted on our Web site. Unfortunately, by the time the ride was over, I was exhausted and hot and decided to head home, forgetting about the watermelon-eating contest. If anyone has photos from the event, please e-mail them to me at editor@salinereporter.com. I'd love to share them with readers, either in print or online.

Another highlight, of course, was Two Twelve Art Center's Vegetable Art Contest. I saw some of the entries and was blown away. They were all so creative. In particular, I thought the penguins were adorable.

Now that my first Saline Summerfest is over, I am already looking forward to next year and planning to spend even more time there. Hopefully, the weather will be just as nice as it was this past Friday and Saturday, although a little cooler would be nice. As far as the entertainment, artists, activities and sights, I don't know how the Summerfest Committee can top this year's event. They deserve a big congratulations and thank you for all the work that went into organizing the annual festival. It was another great community event and among the reasons Saline has been named one of the top cities in the nation. No doubt.