Photostory by James Hanlon
The Village of Leonard closed E. Elmwood St. for a few hours Saturday night, July 17. The occasion was a summer block party – a first for the community. The party featured live music, dancing in the street, food, country games for kids, a euchre competition and a cornhole competition.
The Leonard Festival Committee planed the event after plans for the Addison Twp. Fire Department’s Strawberry Festival were canceled this year due to concerns from the department about the coronavirus. The committee felt it just wouldn’t be a strawberry festival without the department serving strawberry sundaes.
The event was held in memory of Sgt. Charles Gunnar Johnson, an Addison Township firefighter who died from COVID-19 complications in May.
The Strawberry Festival will return next year, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the annual event that began in 1952.