By Mary O’KEEFE

Last weekend’s Hometown Country Fair sponsored by the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce was a fun-filled day that gave community members a chance to see old friends, shop, be entertained by local talent and learn about organizations that help support the area.

“We had double the booths of last year,” said Julia Rabago, executive director of the CV Chamber of Commerce.

With so much to do, visitors spent time strolling around Crescenta Valley Park, walking through the booth area, admiring the classic cars from the Early Rodders car club and riding the Ferris wheel and other carnival attractions.

Community members were also able to meet and speak with Congressman Adam Schiff and state assemblymembers Anthony Portantino and Mike Gatto. State assembly candidate Greg Krikorian also stopped by along with a few of his five children.

Beginning a new tradition this year was fair kickoff with the Run to Remember 5K in support of the Two Strike Park Memorial Wall. This was the first year the event was sponsored by the Two Strike Park Memorial committee and supported by the CV Chamber. There were 115 runners that ran the course that was designed and mapped out by Chris Evans, a CVHS graduate and co-head track coach at Golden Valley High School.

“For our first year, we think we did really well,” said Mike Baldwin, veteran and member of the committee.

The first person to cross the finish line was David Beerer of Glendale, David Edgar of Tujunga took second place and Bryan Bayles of La Crescenta took third.

  Mary Okeefe