Youngsters bounce into new school year

SHARON — Veterans Field was a seething mass of children Friday afternoon, Aug. 23, as families took advantage of the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau’s back-to-school bouncy house event.

There was also a 3K race, and a fun run in which children ran around the bases on the baseball diamond.

The youngsters could also get a “tattoo” and have their faces painted.

The latter was very popular. Ani Jenkins, the face-painting artist, told one mother and daughter that there were several clients ahead of them.

In case the excitement of the several bouncy houses faded, there was an athletic contest involving a Velcro-covered soccer ball.

On one side of the attraction, the contestant kicks the ball at a large version of a dartboard. A reporter happened by just as one young boy nailed the bullseye. He then vanished into the crowd, arms raised in triumph.

On the other side, one of the balls had gotten stuck. Two men, Bryant Nelson of Amenia and Alan Ennesser of North Canaan, took it on themselves to un-stick the ball.

This was more difficult than it seemed at first. The long telescoping rod came disassembled, and it took some fiddling, and passing the instrument to Nelson, the taller of the two, to get the ball down.

Matt Mette, the recreation director in Sharon, got the children assembled for the fun run around the baseball diamond. This was also difficult, as the younger children were inclined to wander off.

With the help of some no-nonsense mothers, the children were lined up, youngest to oldest, and ran off one at a time when Mette yelled “Go!”

A couple ran to third base instead of first, and another kept going into right field and had to be corralled.

But eventually the contestants made it around the diamond, with the older ones making the trip three times. Everybody got a medallion and posed for a group photo, an endeavor that proved almost as tricky as getting them lined up in the first place.