Gen. Edward Paine bobblehead giveaway to be hosted at Lake County Fair - The News-Herald
A Gen. Edward Paine bobblehead will be available to the first 1,000 people, with paid admission, who visit the Lake County Fair this weekend in Painesville Township.
The bobblehead giveaway will take place on July 26 at 1301 Mentor Ave. at the America 250 table inside the log cabin building at the fair. Gates open for the fair on Saturday at 8 a.m.; exhibit buildings open at noon.
According to Lake County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Neil Stein, this is an initiative by the Lake County committee in charge of promoting the America 250-Ohio campaign, which will mark the country’s 250th anniversary next year.
“The committee is made up of quite a few people, myself included,” he said. “We’re trying to raise awareness for America’s 250th birthday next year and wanted to do something fun, and memorable this year to begin spreading the word and awareness.”
Stein said the committee came up with the idea of giving away a bobblehead at the fair. After numerous discussions on who the bobblehead should be, it was unanimously decided to feature Paine, who was in the Revolutionary War, settled in Lake County and eventually had Painesville named after him.
“One of the ideas we had a while ago was to do something at the fair and to give something away to encourage people to come,” Stein said. “Bobbleheads are normally a baseball thing, so this idea came up to maybe do a bobblehead of somebody. Everybody gravitated to Paine.”
Once deciding on Paine being the bobblehead, the Daughters of the American Revolution assisted with writing a bio for the box the bobblehead will be in. Additionally, old photos of Painesville and of some other places were sent to the company rolling out the bobbleheads.
“Tour Lake County funded a majority of this,” Stein said. “We had some funding to do something because this isn’t super cheap, so we said we’ll step up and help.”
Stein said every state has an America 250 program in place and from state to state, awareness is being done differently.
“There’s an America 250 Committee for Ohio and they encouraged all these different counties, and cities to have their own committee,” he said. “Our goal is really to raise awareness of this happening next year, but to encourage people to have something planned for it. The state has a bunch of different initiatives they’re rolling out for America 250.”
From a local county perspective, Stein said the bobblehead may help drive foot traffic to the fair.
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“They are always well attended, but this might get some additional people to the fair who maybe have never been there before,” he said. “It’ll be a great keepsake. There’s a lot of historical collectors out there, a lot of people who love local history and there’s just bobblehead people who love any bobblehead.”