VALLEY CITY — The 61st annual Valley City Frog Jump on July 24 featured a number of firsts. From the overall size of the festival, with twice as many bounce houses as the 2021 festival and over 50 vendors, to the “semi-retirement” of the festival’s mascot, Mayor Ribbit, and a contest to name the his successor, who is also in attendance.
And while it’s not officially a record, the nearly 90-degree temperature at the start of the festival had to be close. Sunny skies and some particularly active frogs only added to the excitement.
“It went really well,” Olmsted Falls resident Mickey Makrinos, 9, said after his frog, Optimus Slime, jumped into first place at the festival with his 8-foot, 8-inch specimen in the first round A 3-year frog jumping veteran and last year’s winner in his division, Mickey was at the festival with his mother, Liane, and his brother, Hudson, 7, who also jumped another frog late in the day
Mickey seemed very confident in his partner this year.
“I caught him at the Metroparks,” said Mr. Slime, adding that fighting his frog was much harder than jumping him. “The first time I tried to catch it, it fell out of the net into the grass.”
A sure sign of a natural jumper, of course.
The origins of the Valley City Frog Jump Festival date back to 1962, when it was conceived as a children’s event in celebration of Valley City’s 150th birthday. The festival is organized by the Valley City Community Group, (VCCG), a non-profit organization created to improve the quality of life in the Valley City community, according to its website. Festival organizers claimed 800 frogs were already registered at the start of the 2022 festival, with walk-in entries also available.
“We came last year and the kids had a lot of fun, so we’re back,” Grafton Township resident Jody Buckosh said.
Her husband, Jarrett, said his employer grew up in Valley City and told the couple.
“We both grew up in Elyria and had never heard of it,” Jarrett said. She added that while the frog jump is obviously a big part of the draw, her sons Colt, 7, Cade, 5, and Quinn, 3, are big fans of the bounce houses.
According to VCCG president Dave Smallwood, that’s exactly what the festival is all about.
“There really aren’t that many family events that you can attend all day,” she said.
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