53rd Woollybear Festival is Sunday

VERMILION — All across the city, little kids are hunting for gold this week. It doesn't look like gold. It looks like fuzzy black and orange striped caterpillars, bearing the humble name of woollybears. But this week? This week these lowly creatures are kings in Vermilion, where come Sunday folks will celebrate — for the 53rd year — the annual Woollybear Festival. A key part of the festival is the Woollybear 500, a highly competitive race that kids enter with their woollybears, to see who has the fastest racer. As one can imagine, it's a high-stakes game. There are preliminaries to get down to the nail-biting final round. For generations, children in Vermilion learn about woollybears — also known as the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth — at school, color pictures of woollybear, dress up in orange and brown the week of the festival in class, and come home excited to find a woollybear in the backyard to train for the races. The festival was started up the road in Birmingham as a Parent Teachers Association fundraiser by Cleveland weatherman Dick Goddard, as a way to celebrate the folklore around the woollybear's ability to predict winter weather. It was so small in the beginning the parade would circle the tiny community twice. A few years later it grew too big, and moved to Vermilion but it always stayed focused on animals, kindness and kids. Goddard died in 2020, but his legacy continues to loom large over the festival. He was a devoted animal advocate. There's king and queen pageant for kids, and a costume pageant for pets dressed up as woollybears. "Mr. Goddard wanted the whole thing for the little kids. We want everybody to be a kid for the day. We want everybody to enjoy themselves," Coe said. "It is not just about woollybears any more. It's be kind to all animals. And we really want to get that legacy out there. We have animal groups coming in too." The one-day festival draws so many people every October, organizers estimate its annual draw exceeds the city's population by about tenfold. Last year it rained all day and numbers were down to about 80,000, said Sandy Coe, Vermilion Chamber of Commerce executive director. About 10,000 people live in Vermilion. This year the unseasonably gorgeous weather probably will draw a particularly robust crowd. "It's going to be 83 degrees. It's going to be warmer than it was for the Fish Festival (in June). "Some years I've worn gloves with the fingers cut out, some years we've had sleet. You just never know,but this year it's going to be gorgeous." Registration opens for the Woollybear 500. The festival is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Vermilion, at Exchange Park and Victory Park. The parade begins at 1:30 p.m. A full schedule with parking details and locations is available at vermillionohio.com. There are food vendors, a festival marketplace and many of the downtown restaurants and shops are offering woollybear-themed menus and special sales. Main Street Beach is within walking distance. The festival is free. Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.