WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A big milestone was celebrated this Saturday afternoon. A local park celebrated its 100th anniversary with food, rides, and even a hot air balloon.
Saturday marked 100 years of Kirby Park, so what better way to celebrate than with a free community event?
Besides parkgoers and Wilkes-Barre officials, members of the Kirby family were on hand.
They were happy to see the park made possible thanks to their great-grandfather, Fred Morgan Kirby
"Improvements have been made to the park just terrific. We had an opportunity today with Mike Slosser to see firsthand what some of those improvements were and to get a knowledge of how actively the park is used by the citizens of Wilkes-Barre is very gratifying to the family," said Fred.
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28/22 News also got to speak to the eldest of the fifth generation of the Kirby family.
She says it's nice to see kids using the park and off their phones.
"The softball field is the tennis courts there. It sounds like there are kids out here all the time enjoying the different spaces and I think the more we make kids go outside and enjoy the spot the more they overtime. It becomes something that they're just excited to be doing on a regular basis and they can put those phones down," explained Laura Virkler the chair at the F.M. Kirby Foundation.
Along with food, face painting, and more, there was also a hot air balloon ride. One attendee I spoke with said she was a little afraid to get on at first.
"It definitely wasn't as bad as I thought because you don't actually like go on a ride you just it's just stationary you go up and then they pull you back down with the rope switch. I thought they were gonna let the robes go and I was afraid we wouldn't get down," added Leah Natushko from Peckville.
The F.M. Kirby Foundation chairperson says it's nice to come back with the younger generation of the Kirby family so they can enjoy the park legacy of their forefather.
"It's so much fun to be able to bring our kids back here and let them enjoy the same spaces so I think the fact that it has been here for so long and will continue to be here for another hundred years means there's a lot of our Kirby generations that are gonna be able to enjoy it for a long time to come," stated Virkler.
The House of Representatives also presented the Kirby family with a citation for their outstanding work in the community.
The Kirby family says there is more work being done on the lake. They added that they are excited to see how that turns out.
