History of Community Day: A Hot Topic

The first Community Day in Cranberry Township started 0n July 4, 1976. Cranberry at that time was a community of 7,000 people. Currently, it is four times that size.  

It was a big day for the community to come out and celebrate. Thirty years ago, Cranberry Township did not have today's Route 228. The east-west road was Mars Crider Road, and there were no traffic lights. Route 19 was a two-lane road with no major developments. Options to shop and dine in Cranberry were limited.

As Cranberry grew, so did the attendance of Community Day. But just like other aspects of a
smaller community growing to a larger size, hosting Community Day on July 4
became a huge burden for the township -- and a huge cost.  

As attendance increased, volunteers dwindled, and the additional cost and responsibilities to
host Community Day on July 4 fell upon the township and the increased use of tax dollars. It was hard to get community volunteers on a holiday because people wanted to spend the fourth with family and friends. 

Even getting township employees became difficult because they also wanted to spend time with their family and friends. The township started to fill manpower needs with paid staff. Because of holiday pay, the costs of Community Days was made even higher.

“I know this is a controversial issue even today for many people” said Cranberry Supervisor Bruce Mazzoni.

"But Community Day was not a community-supported event, it was 'Township Day' attended by the community  with 95-plus percent of the burden to pay and supply manpower falling on the township. To host Community Days is very expensive. People are shocked when I tell them we spend over $35,000 today to host the three-day event. But the real problem was it was getting harder to find more paid staff and volunteers as the event grew larger."

It was a huge decision to move Community Days from July 4 to the second Saturday in July.   We knew it was an unpopular decision, but when you looked at the costs and the
difficulty staffing the event, we had no choice."

“I know four years later, people still have hard feelings with the decision," Mazzoni continued. "The first year as we had people complain about moving the date from July 4, I would ask them if we could count on them to volunteer to help us if we were to move it back to July 4. I usually never heard anything further from them. People are shocked when they hear how much time and effort goes into Community Day.”

Looking back, it worked out to be a good decision. Four years ago is when Cranberry Township Community Chest was revamped to put a focus on declining nonprofit and civic organizations.

“We wanted to have an event to put a focus on our nonprofit and civic groups and Community Day was a perfect venue to do this,” said Michele Skubak, Chairwoman of CTCC.  “We
explained to the township supervisors and staff our plan with the goal to cover a majority of the expenses and to recruit volunteers. Last year, we had 450 people volunteer to make Community Days happen and had more than 35 nonprofit and civic groups involved to raise awareness and money for their causes."

How much money?  Over $100,000.  

We now have the treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, many other contests, a carnival, three days of free concerts, almost three times the booths compared to four years ago, and much more to do and enjoy -- all capped off with fireworks. But without a doubt…2011 CTCC Community Days will be the biggest of them all.

Wait and see what we have in store for you! More to come soon on some of the events.