North Canton celebrates Fourth of July with annual races, parade

NORTH CANTON − The community kicked off its Fourth of July celebration Tuesday morning with the 45th annual North Canton YMCA two-mile walk/run and five-mile run, followed by the 52nd annual North Canton Fourth of July Parade.

"It was nice going through the neighborhoods. There were a lot of people with sprinklers. And it was cool. People playing music, a lot of patriotic music," said Tim Detweiler, of North Canton, who ran the five-mile race.

Hershel Chenault, 63, ran his 10th North Canton YMCA race with his daughter Cherish Chenault, 27, both of Plain Township.

Cherish Chenault, a sergeant in the Ohio National Guard at Brook Park, said, "It motivated me when I was running. It made me think about my soldiers and how I would motivate them when we run our two miles. I would always tell them, 'It's all in your head. You can do it.' So when I was running, I just kept saying that to myself."

The winners of the two-mile race were Noah Johnson of North Canton in the men's division with a time of 10:04 and Abbey Warth of Indianapolis, Indiana, in the women's division with a time of 11:29. The winners of the five-mile race were Vincent Giumenti of Dover with a time of 26:04 and Emily Shaub of North Canton with a time of 33:17, with Bernard Prince winning the the five-mile wheelchair division of two competitors in 43:46.

Ben Wheeler, the vice president of operations for the North Canton YMCA, said city paramedics treated some runners because of hot and humid conditions, but none had to go to the hospital.

Highlights of the races included 12 runners doing the five-mile race for the Kabab and Curry Restaurant in Plain Township; Jesse and Scott Weisel of Rockledge, Florida running the five-mile race in costume as the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam; and four generations of a family running the two-mile race: Josh and Fiorella Wade, with their young daughter Silvana Ohio natives visiting from California, Josh's aunt Ramona Cochran and Josh's grandmother Judy Moore.

The parade began at 10:30 a.m. at Hoover High School Memorial Stadium and went south on Main Street before finishing at North Canton Middle School. The parade featured civic organizations, businesses, churches, North Canton youth sports teams, local chapters of Daughters of the American Revolution, the North Canton Public Library, North Canton fire trucks and police vehicles and dozens of classic cars.

Many in the parade tossed candy to children on the sidewalk who eagerly scooped it up and placed them into bags.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: North Canton celebrates Fourth of July with races and parade