Redskin Memorial Park - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Redskin Memorial Park

We recently returned to the Ft. Loramie area to attend a reunion for my wife’s family. The event was held at the new Redskin Memorial Park, an amazing venue for the reunion. It was our first visit to the park and it did not disappoint.

Perin Family Pavilion

The reunion was held in the Perin Pavilion, donated by the Paul & Vee Perin Family, which is quite a facility, with fireplace, the large doors, big screen TV and fully furnished space. The single doors on each side were 6” thick and hydraulically operated to make the pavilion fully open air on a perfect Sunday afternoon for the reunion. A great time was had by all. Photo follows.

Poeppelman Reunion Attendees

After chatting with all our relatives, we had an opportunity to walk around the park, with our first stop at the playground area. The large stone near the playground recognized the Tom & Diane Meyer family for the donation of the funds to construct the playground. What a fantastic playground for the kids of Ft. Loramie; a far cry from the playground equipment we had growing up next to the old elementary school. I can recall the metal slide that we would use sheets of wax paper swiped from home to sit on to speed up the slide, It worked fantastic, but made the landing at the end of the slide a little harsh.

Meyer Family Playground

We also had swings that were fun to jump off of when flying high. No doubt those antics are discouraged these days. Jungle bars were fun as well, but nothing like the Redskin Park facilities today. My grand niece and nephew really enjoyed the park during a recent visit with their grandmother, my sister Lucy, who thankfully provided most of the photos in this blog.

The park includes 4 ballfields, one of which is named after my cousin Jared Hoying as pictured here.

The 26 acre park was spearheaded by local civic leaders and funded by generous donors listed on the large plaque on the ballfields concession stand and the many volunteers pictured below who helped construct the park. The effort was lead by Craig Drees, Vice President Ryan Homan, Vice President of Finance Diane Meyer, Secretary Lisa Benanzer, Treasurer Jeanne Hoying, Village Administrator Tony Schmitmeyer and Mayor Randy Ahlers. Click here for a 2018 SDN article about the creation of the park.

Some of the other major donors include Dave Ross, Russ & Rene Gottemoeller, Tony & Pam Seger and Irene Boerger. I’m also a donor thanks to a small contribution in memory of Loramie basketball teammate John Gephart. And of note, The Redskin Memorial entrance sign was designed and funded as an Eagle Scout project by Devin Wray.

This blog was written while listening to the thrilling Loramie victory over Minster Friday night on ScoresBroadcast.com; almost but not quite like being there in person. Go Redskins! Great start.

~~~~~~~~

Receive a weekly email whenever there is a new blog post. Just click here to send me an email request and your name will be added to the distribution.