Gloucester Township Day Is Saturday

Gloucester Township Day is Saturday and figures to have Lt. Col. Samuel M. Siler Veterans Memorial Park bustling with activity from morning to night.

Gates open at 11 a.m. for the 28th annual township carnival, which benefits Gloucester Township Day Scholarship Committee.

In addition to the top-notch playground always in place at Veterans Memorial Park, the park and adjacent municipal complex parking lot will be transformed into a child's dream, complete with carnival rides and inflatable bounce games.

The fireworks show is slated to begin around 9 p.m., but arrive much earlier to celebrate the township and to enjoy the rides, food, and crafts.

"It's a great opportunity for the township to come together and celebrate itself," said Dick Hollinshead, treasurer of Gloucester Township Day Scholarship Committee. "Our feeling is that over the years, for a township that doesn't really have a downtown and is a bunch of sub-communities, it's a chance for all of us to come together."

Organizers expect about 80 vendors will be on hand for the carnival.

Musical performances ranging from kindergarten choirs to Mainstage Center for the Arts' Harmony high-school choir will take place throughout the day.

At 6 p.m. comes the reason Gloucester Township Day was founded in the first place—the 40 winners of $1,000 college scholarships will be presented with their scholarship awards.

A total of 40 high-school seniors were randomly selected for the scholarships at the Township Council's April 9 meeting.

Now in its 27th year, the Scholarship Committee has awarded $914,200 in college-assistance funds to more than 1,050 high school seniors from Gloucester Township.

The scholarship recipients won't be the only people picking up a prize Saturday.

Gloucester Township Rotary Foundation will hold a raffle drawing for a custom-framed Phillies jersey signed by 2011 starting pitchers Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.

The "Four Aces" raffle drawing is scheduled for between 5:30 and 6 p.m. at the performance stage. Mayor David Mayer will be pulling the winning ticket.

The Rotary Club will be selling the last tickets for the jersey raffle at its booth throughout the day. All proceeds from the raffle benefit the Gloucester Township “Field of Dreams” ball field for handicapped children.

It's free to enter the carnival grounds, but be sure to bring money to buy food, drinks, carnival ride tickets and more.

The Gloucester Township Day rain date is Sunday, June 3.

As of Tuesday night at about 10 p.m., the National Weather Service was calling for a high of 75 degrees on Saturday, with mostly cloudy skies and a 50 percent chance of showers.

In addition to Hollinshead, Gloucester Township Day Scholarship Committee is Harry Morgan, chairman; Mayer, honorary chairman; Judy Gore, secretary; and Jessica Botte, Judy Calabrese, Debi Carr, John Custodio, Nicole D'Amico, Police Chief W. Harry Earle, Joan Eller-Hinski, Bill Fagan, Kate Kochanski-Coll, Sandi Love, Shane McNichol, Suzanne Moore, Council Vice President Orlando Mercado, Kristina Roehr, Louise Tyciak, and Judy Weiserth, members.