Spread the ‘ewes!’ Running of the Wools coming in May
Courtesy of Joe Piszczor
Shana Brown, Main Street manager for the Washington Business District Authority, poses with a sheep in front of Farmers and Friends Marketplace on Main Street.
Drew Ross of Ross Farms and owner of Farmers and Friends Marketplace in downtown Washington checks out an Observer-Reporter with a sheep. Ross will be supplying the competitors for "The Running of the Wools," scheduled for May 6, in the block between Wheeling and Maiden streets.
Baarbara Woolters takes a break from training for the Running of the Wools
Courtesy of Joe Piszczor
Folks hang out with one of the potential competitors at Chicco Baccello.
Courtesy of the Washington Business District Authority
The Running of the Wools is scheduled for May 6 in downtown Washington.
Courtesy of Joe Piszczor
Drew Ross of Ross Farms, owner of Family and Friends Marketplace, tends to one of the sheep.
Spread the “ewes!” Sheep racing is coming to downtown Washington!
The “Running of the Wools” is the Saturday headliner of the May 6 weekend event, when the sheep take to Main Street to compete for bragging rights as the fastest sheep in Washington County.
The fun event pays tribute to the region’s roots in sheep farming: In the early 1800s, Southwestern Pennsylvania was an epicenter for sheep farming. By the time of the Civil War, Washington County led the nation in wool production, and sheep in the county outnumbered people 7 to 1.
“There is a reason we chose sheep,” said Shana Brown, Main Street manager for the Washington Business District Authority. “There’s actually historical significance behind this.”
The event was announced last week on the Washington County Historical Society Facebook page by Clay Kilgore, historical society director, and Brown.
“We’re so excited about this,” Kilgore said on the promotional video. “It’s going to be an educational event, but fun at the same time. We’re going to be talking about agriculture, we’re going to be talking about farming, and we’re going to be talking about the past, present and future of sheep.”
To get into a competitive frame of mind, the video starts off with a training montage featuring “Baarbara Woolters,” who is seen on a treadmill.
A full weekend of activities kicks off with “Sheep-O de Mayo” – to celebrate the better-known Cinco de Mayo – the night before in the LeMoyne House gardens.
“There will be sheep in mini sombreros and all kinds of fun Mexican lamb goodies passed out,” Brown said.
First Friday will be celebrated in the Main Street Pavilion with a Cinco de Mayo theme and will feature a mariachi band. Venue 19 North will host an event after First Friday.
Saturday activities will kick off with a breakfast crawl from 9:30 a.m. until noon at city businesses. Starting at 10 a.m., there will be a number of vendors and farm artisans at the Main Street Pavilion. Refreshments also will be available.
“We’re being very focused and intentional with our vendors,” Brown said. “They have to be farmers, fiber distributors, people like that. It’s just not going to be anybody. It just has to make sense.”
The main event will start at noon, when 20 sheep will take to the street and race in four heats, with five woolly competitors in each heat. The winners will race at 2 p.m. to determine, as Kilgore put it, “the fastest sheep of Washington County.”
Brown said the races will be short, about 75 to 100 feet, to ensure competitors don’t “go on the lamb.”
“We want to make it containable and not a burden on the sheep,” Brown said. “It’s just a block – a middle portion of the block between Wheeling and Maiden, right in front of the (Main Street) pavilion.”
“Running of the Wools” will include a number of demonstrations and discussions about wool, and members of 4-H and Future Farmers of America will be volunteering their time. There will be plenty of opportunity for children to visit with sheep and lambs.
Students from local high schools will be involved in a competition to build sheep feeders, which eventually will be on display at the Washington County Fair.
There also will be a kitchen clash cooking contest, with judging expected to take place between 3 and 4 p.m.
The weekend will wrap up Sunday with local churches conducting blessing services revolving around the theme of sheep from 1 to 4 p.m.
As the run-up to “Running of the Wools” continues, folks are invited to email their best sheep jokes to shana@downtownwashingtonpa.com. They will be in two categories, Sheep Jokes and Sheep Jokes after Dark.”
This is not just a thing to promote the historical society and the BDA,” Kilgore said. “This is to promote downtown, this is to promote Washington County and to promote agriculture.”