Big Rig Event a big success for Housatonic Child Care

LAKEVILLE — A decent crowd turned out for the Big Rig Event Saturday, despite uncooperative weather.

The fundraiser for the Housatonic Child Care Center had more than 25 vehicles — logging trucks, cement trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars; recreational vehicles, a dragster, tractors and big rigs with cherry pickers that reached easily as high as the flagpole at Community Field in Lakeville.

Children got their faces painted, rode a pony, participated in games of skill and got to climb into the cabs of big tractors — and honk the horns.

Director Sandy Gomez from the child care center said organizers got the idea by word of mouth. Similar events have been held in Great Barrington, and were successful, drawing good crowds.

She added that she and her brother, Mark, managed to get in about 30 pony rides — on Jody, an Argentinian polo pony of whom Mark Gomez said “If I could clone a horse it would be Jody.�

But a little after noon “the heavens opened up,� as Sandy Gomez put it.

When it became apparent it was not a passing shower, the big vehicles started to pack up.

The center plans to sponsor the event again next year, hoping for better weather.

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