Village Artisans will present its 42nd annual Art on the Lawn Festival on Saturday, Aug. 8, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., at the corner of Limestone and Phillips streets, behind Mills Lawn School.
More than 75 artists and artisans from Ohio and beyond are expected to gather for the day to display and sell their original creations, including ceramics, drawings, fiber art, garden art, glass, jewelry, leatherwork, mixed media, paper craft, paintings and photography. Food vendors and live music will complement the juried artist booths.
This year’s featured artist is Amy Noffsinger, a multifaceted glass artist from Out of Bounds Creations in Camp Dennison, Ohio. Noffsinger won Best of Show at last year’s Art on the Lawn.
The 2026 event will take place rain or shine, and visitors are asked to refrain from bringing dogs and other pets.
Village Artisans is a cooperative art gallery in Yellow Springs. For more information, call 937-767-1209 or go online to http://www.villageartisans.blogspot.com or the co-op’s Facebook page.
I am an artist. If you, dear reader, only know me through my writing, you may not have known that about me, but it’s true. In fact, most of my time and creative energy isn’t spent on words. It’s spent on images — images that tend to be, as my own artist bio politely puts it, “intense.”
It’s the sort of artwork that isn’t always what people want to see, the sort that quickens the pace of gallery patrons. There are lots of artists like me making art like this, and I would like to take a moment to speak for them and, hopefully, make the case for slowing down and engaging with this work, even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts.
Art, for me at least, is not a place for logic. Pictures are not where I share my complete thoughts and coherent arguments. My images are built from raw emotion, unfiltered feeling and shameless vulnerability. They are the memories that have no words, a look through the unshaded window of my soul.
They take a lot of effort to make, and the results can be, as my best friend has tactfully told me, “dark.”
It is an interesting experience exhibiting this work. I remember very clearly my first art fair. Two out of every three people walking by would take one look at my booth, immediately turn their heads and walk off in search of something more appetizing, searching perhaps for something with more lilies and fewer screaming mouths. That didn’t surprise me or offend me.
Flowers are beautiful. They take skill to render effectively, and such things can bring genuine joy to a person. My booth, on the other hand, was packed with pictures that dealt explicitly with addiction, trauma, self-injury, anorexia, sex, gender dysphoria, etc., and I thought, “Well, you know, maybe this stuff isn’t for everyone.”
But not all of them ran away, and the people who did stop to look stopped and stayed. They stayed and looked for a long time. They talked to me, they bought pieces from me and genuinely engaged with the work in a way that I wasn’t expecting.
It was a very gratifying experience for me, and it was that remaining third of the people, that one in three who didn’t turn away, that got me thinking more about the value of “intense” or “dark” art.
I’ve had many opportunities since that day to share my work and speak with the people who find something there to appreciate. Of course, they have their own varied and individual thoughts about the art, but it seems to come down to them all simply having seen something of themselves in the images.
That’s wonderful to hear as an artist, especially as a “dark” artist, because the need to be seen is exactly why I invest so much of myself into creating this art.
That brings me to finally addressing the other two-thirds of the people, the people who turn away. I understand well the impulse to turn from something that is frightening, but I think that those who do so are doing themselves a disservice.
If you, dear reader, are someone who finds themselves running from the shadow in search of the reassurance of the day lily, let me try to bring you to the dark side, if only for a moment.
Disturbing artwork is an offering. It is the artist reaching out to share a piece of themselves with another person, and it is a precious gift indeed. Every single one of us experiences pain, grief and loss. Every single one of us has been scared. Every single one of us has walked through shadow, but not all of us are willing to stay there, in those painful moments, for the time it takes to turn them into art.
When I look at a piece of art, I may spend five, maybe 10 minutes, with it before moving on. Ten minutes thinking about what I am seeing and what the person who created it must have been feeling.
But, as the creator, I have spent up to 200 hours with a piece. That’s dozens of hours sitting with the memory and the emotion of it. That is the gift of the dark artist: a willingness to sit with that pain and to share it so that another person may step one foot into the shadow for just a moment, see themselves there and know that they are not alone. So that they can step into the pain of their own memory, and maybe for the first time, see something beautiful there.
To be clear, I’m not disparaging anyone’s taste. I do my best not to art-shame, and I’m not expecting anyone to redecorate their home based on my musings.
I worry that this entire essay may read like a bit of branding for an artist who is seeking more attention for her work. Perhaps it is that, but call it what you want — intense, dark, frightening, grotesque — I genuinely believe that we are losing something when we turn away from the horrible in art.
We are training ourselves to turn from the pain of our fellow humans, and worse than that, we are turning away from that part of our own selves that hurts, that cries, that feels unsure or lost. That is often the very part of ourselves that needs most to be seen.
So please, my dear reader, the next time you are out in the world experiencing artwork, fight that first impulse to turn away from the art that is, as a recent viewer of my work called it, “difficult to look at.”
Instead, spend a few intense moments with the darkness. Walk into it with your arms open, because what is waiting there for you isn’t a monster. It is you — you in all your fragile humanity. The you who has been waiting a long time to be seen, to be acknowledged and embraced.
That isn’t the sort of gift you get every day, and it definitely isn’t one you should turn away from. Stay. Look. Find that lost you. Maybe offer them a flower. Hold them tightly for a few minutes and let them know that they haven’t been forgotten.
*The author is an artist and writer living in Yellow Springs. You can follow her work at http://www.mynameisiden.com
Plans to prepare the Pine Forest section of Glen Forest Cemetery for burials led to extensive discussion at the Monday, July 20, meeting of the Miami Township Trustees, as board members debated the cost of adding pine needle ground cover to the site — and more broadly, how decisions about Township cemeteries should be made.
The Pine Forest, intended as a natural burial area for cremated remains, was first presented in 2024 and is designed to hold more than 300 plots. Last July, trustees voted 2–1 to allocate an additional $5,000 to complete the section, bringing its projected total cost at the time to about $23,000.
Trustee Marilan Moir voted against the allocation; at the time, she cited concerns about the scale of the planned expansion and long-term maintenance costs. The Township currently maintains two traditional cemeteries, two natural burial areas — including Oak Grove, established in 2022 — a columbarium plaza and a memorial scattering garden.
Trustee Chris Mucher, who developed and has overseen much of the work on the Pine Forest and other cemetery projects, said at the time that the new sections are valuable public assets and that existing plot sales had helped fund their development.
Questions about cemetery planning and spending continued this March, when trustees reviewed cemetery expenses line by line and discussed how projects should be budgeted, tracked and approved.
On Monday, Zoning Administrator Bryan Lucas presented trustees with a list of work he recommended before the Pine Forest could open. That work included clearing weeds and redefining the Pine Forest section’s boundaries, adding pine needles as ground cover and determining how to use fencing materials already purchased.
Lucas said the marked burial area encompasses about 40,000 square feet, and that estimates from several vendors called for 700–800 bales of pine straw to refresh areas that had previously been covered and establish a thicker layer in sections that had not.
The estimates varied, but several totaled between about $7,500 and $14,000, depending on the number and type of bales and whether delivery was included. Lucas recommended a Franklin-area vendor that would allow the Township to begin with one delivery of 465 bales for $4,725, plus an $85 delivery charge, and then decide whether a second delivery was needed.
Trustee Lori Askeland initially moved to proceed with that first delivery, with Moir seconding.
Mucher objected to the number of bales recommended, saying he had cleared and covered most of the section himself last year with the equivalent of about 50 bales. He said the pine needles were intended to form a relatively thin covering, rather than the one-and-a-half- to three-inch layer on which the vendor estimates were based.
“It was just a covering,” he said. “It wasn’t meant to be a blanket.”
He also said he believed spending more than $10,000 on additional pine needles would not be “a fiscally responsible way to finish off this cemetery,” particularly when other proposed landscaping and fencing had not moved forward.
Moir responded that the board had decided collectively not to install 40 ornamental grasses or extend fencing across the back of the section, but had not voted to halt maintenance. She said the question was not whether the Pine Forest should be completed, but how the board authorizes and oversees that work.
The exchange grew into a larger disagreement about Mucher’s long-standing role in cemetery planning. Mucher said the other trustees had removed his ability to make decisions about the Pine Forest and given the work to a Township employee.
“My ideas have been removed from this consideration,” Mucher said.
“No, we’re considering this as a board,” Moir responded. “That’s the difference.”
“Making it collaborative is not taking it away,” Askeland added. “It’s saying this is a full responsibility of the whole board, including new people who need to be brought up to speed with clear information and with budgets that are written out.”
Mucher said he had carried out much of the work planning and launching cemetery expansions in the past because other trustees had not offered to help develop or maintain those expansions. Moir acknowledged that work, but said she believes the cemetery has reached a point at which it needs a management plan that does not depend on the knowledge or labor of one trustee.
“All three of us aren’t going to be here forever,” she said. “We have to reckon with the fact that this needs a management plan, both financially and physically.”
After additional discussion, the trustees settled on using the materials already available — about 40 bales of pine needle cover — before making a purchase.
“It sounds like we are making consensus to get those weeds cleared, use what we’ve got, see what that seems to amount to and then make a decision about the additional needed pine needles,” Moir said.
Lucas is also developing proposed guidelines and updated pricing for the Pine Forest and other cemetery services, with an anticipated completion date of Aug. 15; he proposed a tentative date for beginning plot sales of Sept. 1.
MTFR approaches full staffing
Trustees voted unanimously to hire Ross Higbee and Teresa Himes as part-time firefighter/EMTs at $19.05 per hour.
“With the hiring of those two individuals, I’m pretty comfortable we will be at full staff,” Miami Township Fire-Rescue Chief James Cannell said, noting that MTFR is currently maintaining three-person staffing on more than 90% of its shifts — a goal established by Cannell upon his hiring last year.
MTFR recently began a new schedule under which full-time personnel work 48 hours followed by 96 hours off. Cannell said the transition has been smooth and that department employees have generally responded favorably. The department had completed 742 runs so far this year, averaging more than 3.6 calls per day.
Cannell also reported that a new ambulance is now expected to arrive in mid-August, about a month earlier than previously anticipated.
Zoning fees updated
On the advice of Zoning Administrator Lucas, trustees approved changes to the Township’s zoning fee schedule. A permit for a new accessory dwelling unit, recently added to the Township’s Zoning Resolution, will cost $200; permits for decks, fences, pools and ground-mounted solar installations, which were previously included in the $100 accessory-structure category, will cost $50.
The trustees will not meet Monday, Aug. 3, because the board will not have a quorum. Its next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 17.
Compiled by Don Hollister
85 years ago: 1941
Garden project for Bryan High School. “After a 10 day ‘lay-off’ the High School boys are again at work on their garden project. This 5 acre plot, in Glen Helen, was leased by Antioch College and plowed, disked and put in excellent condition by Mr. Ed Oster’s Ford tractor. The boys who have been employed on the project to date have been David Anthony, Chester Benning, Jr., Eugene Calvert, Harold Cordell, Carl Dolwick, Ralph Grimes, Marion Hufford, Dick Kershner, Edward Kander, Alan Miner, Chester Williams, Jack Semler, Jack Shook, David Stevens, Bill Waite and David Williams. … The plan is for each boy to have this part-time job on which he works 80 hours a month for $21.00 (26 cents per hour). … During his free time he is supposed to look for private employment.”
News sold to local man, Landrum Bolling. “After this issue the NEWS passes into the hands of Mr. Landrum Bolling to whom we have sold it along with all equipment and good will. Mr. Bolling will continue to publish the News and conduct the job printing business from the same building on Walnut Street.”
75 years ago: 1951
300 attend annual Vernay Lab Picnic. “Employees of Vernay Laboratories and their families — more than three hundred people in all — attended the 6th annual Vernay picnic at Bryan State Park last Saturday. Swimming, water sports and contests at Orton Pool began the festivities.”
Student plan for the village. “‘Should we plan to limit the size of our community? … Is the business area decaying? … Should by-passes around the business section be arranged for through traffic?’ were some of the questions that arose at a discussion which followed the presentation to a large group of business and professional men Monday of a planning student’s master plan for Yellow Springs.”
Conference on small communities. “The eighth annual conference on the small community came to an official end here last night with a small group remaining here for an additional three days to discuss ‘intentional,’ cooperative and experimental communities. The theme of the conference was ‘Values by Which Communities Live.’”
50 years ago: 1976
Picnic with Police. “Residents of the North Walnut St. area will be meeting Friday evening at a potluck picnic with police chief James McKee, other police officers and village officials to discuss their complaints about speeders and other problems.”
CPR training. “A heart attack victim could suffer irreversible damage in the time it takes — at least four minutes — for the emergency squad to reach him. So two members of the Yellow Springs emergency squad, Greg Hamilton and Dave Huber, have been teaching a Red Cross course in cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to village residents.”
Overnight blackout. “High winds about 6 to 6:30 p.m. here Thursday sent several large trees crashing to earth in the Village and surrounding countryside and brought electrical power outages of varying lengths to an estimated two-thirds of Yellow Springs homes. … Harold Hamilton, Sr., foreman of the Village utility work crew, says that the crew began repair work about 7 p.m. Thursday and finished about 6 p.m. Friday. … Harold Hamilton, Jr., George West and Leon Battle are the other members of the utility crew. Police, some firemen and a few citizen volunteers provided important help in speeding the clean-up Hamilton told the NEWS. He extended particular thanks to Todd Van Lehn.”
Post Office Adds Boxes. “Now there are ‘plenty of post office mail boxes,’ reports Yellow Springs postmaster John Penix. 101 additional boxes have just been installed in the lobby, eliminating the long list of people waiting for boxes.”
25 years ago: 2001
Police report: “Police made contact with 15 to 20 juveniles who were running through yards in the Stafford/Dayton street area last Thursday, around 1 a.m., and sent them home.”
Three week Antioch Peace Institute. “The fifth annual Peace Institute at Antioch College will be held July 24–August 17th, featuring speakers on the theme of globalization and sustainable development. Speakers will examine the social effects, ethics and policy implications of globalization, focusing on the values of environmental sustainability, economic well-being, human rights, cultural identity and global peace and security.”
Co-ed golf team. “Yellow Springs High School students will get the chance to tee off this fall. That’s because the school board approved a proposal from Superintendent Tony Armocida for a co-ed golf team at last Thursday’s school board meeting. … Questions were also raised about the co-ed requirement. When asked if boys would have an unfair advantage over girls, Armocida said he didn’t think so because each gender has a separate tee in order to take into account differences in physical strength.”
10 years ago: 2016
College accredited. “Antioch College President Tom Manley got the word around 1 p.m. this past Monday. An email showed up in his inbox from the Higher Learning Commission, or HLC. It contained the biggest of big news. After an arduous, five-year process, Antioch College had received accreditation. For Tom Manley and other senior administrators at the College a ‘touchdown dance’ commenced, he said on Tuesday.”
Bible in a bar. “On Wednesday, July 20, police went to a local bar after an employee told police a patron wouldn’t leave. The bartender said that the man was approaching customers and reading to them from the Bible, and became agitated when asked to stop. An officer escorted him outside and served him with a signed ‘ban’ letter.”
Practice laughter yoga. “Laughter Yoga Club meets on Saturdays at 10 a.m. on the grounds of Mills Lawn Elementary School, at South Winter and Elm streets. Laughter yoga is practiced worldwide for health, exercise and fun, and it is also a peace movement, since ‘who can fight when you are laughing?’ Participation is free and open to the public.”
By Coaches Margi Anderson, Rob Gay and Yunus Brevik
After two Friday evenings when weather had other plans for Perry League — first rain, followed by high temperatures and poor air quality — it was wonderful to return to Gaunt Park on July 24 for a picture-perfect evening of T-ball.
The weather was comfortable, the air quality was good, and the turnout was just right: enough children to create plenty of Perry League energy, but not so many that anyone had to wait very long for a turn at bat.
And this, as it turns out, is a very good thing for certain T-ballers. Especially Jamon, 2.
Jamon was the first child on the field and appeared ready to play the instant his feet touched the grass. Once the children had lined up, sprinted to the fence for warmups, and returned to the field, Jamon was ready to hit. He orbited the tee for much of the evening, taking his T-ball responsibilities very seriously.
Occasionally, he had to leave the tee to wait on the batting bench or spend some time in the field. There were a few tears. Jamon really, really likes to hit. He also demonstrated a flexible approach to batting technique. Sometimes he was a right-handed batter. Sometimes he was a left-handed batter. At one point, Jamon was seen batting with the bat upside down.
Hey. Whatever works.
One of the great things about Perry League is that there is always something to do. Children may bat five or six times, chase balls around the field, dig in the dirt, help throw balls in, visit with friends, or simply wander off to pursue an entirely different and perfectly acceptable activity. There are no innings to wait for. No outs. No sitting out because someone else is having a turn.
On Friday, with a few coaches away, the Perry League village once again stepped up to help make it all happen.
Jacob, 7, quickly became Coach Yunus’s right-hand man, enthusiastically delivering balls to the tee throughout the evening so no child had to wait long for a chance to hit. But Jacob did not merely return balls. He delivered them with style. While serving as the unofficial ball returner, Jacob began yelling, “Reload! Coming in hot!” as he ran each ball back to the tee. And then, later in the game, Jacob went full-service. He began making sure the tee itself was positioned perfectly on home plate before each hit. He would sit down on the ground and scoot the tee this way and that, carefully inspecting its placement until he determined that it was exactly where it needed to be. Only then was the next batter ready. This was not simply ball retrieval, this was tee maintenance and coach support.
Adults and older children helped along the baselines, tossing balls back into the field so the children playing defense had more opportunities to field them. Others helped keep children moving in the right direction around the bases — which, in Perry League, is occasionally a more complicated task than one might imagine.
We are grateful for all the helping hands, especially the Perry League Plus volunteers who showed up to help!
Miles, 6, waiting on the batting bench for his next turn, became increasingly curious about the children throwing balls into the infield near first base. After learning that their job was to help ensure that fielders had plenty of opportunities to chase down balls, he appeared very interested in applying for the position. Given permission to move from the batting bench to the first-base volunteer station, his face lit up. And just like that, a new volunteer was born.
There were plenty of new faces and welcome returns throughout the evening.
Jonah, 2, made his Perry League debut after arriving with his dad and sister, Reya-the-Princess, to meet up with friend and co-princess, Pippin. The two BFFs, with matching tiaras, appeared to have important plans of their own, however, and spent much of the evening doing what little girls do when they are together in the grass.
Which, of course, is perfectly acceptable in Perry League.
Violet, 6, arrived directly from the pool, ready to transition from swimming to T-ball without missing a beat. She was joined by Ailish, who was visiting family and friends from out of town. During one of her at-bats, Ailish shared some important news: it was her great-grandmother’s 100th birthday. One hundred years is a very big deal. Coach Yunus raised his hand to get everyone’s attention, and soon the entire Perry League field was shouting: “Happy Birthday!” A very special birthday celebration, indeed.
Sarah, 8, arrived at the tee and reported that she had woken up that morning to a cat licking her face. This is the sort of information one simply does not receive at most sporting events.
Benny, who turns two next week, helped reset the ball on the tee during his turn at bat. A very practical contribution from a very small T-baller.
Zorin, 6, offered Coach Yunus perhaps the sweetest transaction of the evening. After letting Coach Yunus know that he does a good job, Zorin placed a coin in his hand. Coach Yunus explained that he would return the coin after Zorin ran the bases. Zorin said no. The coin was for Coach Yunus. After T-ball ended later, Coach Yunus tried once more to return it. Zorin was adamant. He put up his hands in refusal. A small coin. A very big gesture.
Midway through the evening, Miles, 5, came running up to the batting bench, bright-eyed and clearly needing to make an important announcement.
“Somebody just told me I am the cutest boy ever!! And I am not cute!!” He was smiling as he said it. For the record, Miles is indeed cute.
Camilla, 6, kept her fingers busy while waiting for her turn at bat, drumming them rhythmically against her bat. She had thoughtfully coordinated her teal tie-dye pants with her 2026 teal tie-dye Perry League shirt.
Perry League is always something of a fashion show.
Lily, 5, was also sporting a new look. When Coach Margi commented that she looked different from the last time she had attended, Lily correctly guessed that it might have something to do with her hair. She then proudly pointed out the obvious: Her blond hair was now a beautiful pale green.
Ahva, 6½, arrived wearing purple sparkly Crocs and carrying a brand-new, brightly colored T-ball bat for its inaugural Perry League appearance. The new bat was an immediate sensation. Ahva generously allowed friends to borrow it when it was their turn, and it was soon being admired and wielded all over the field. A very popular bat.
In the middle of the field, Ahva and friends Stevie, 6, and another companion formed a small, giggling huddle. At some point, the huddle apparently evolved into a screaming contest. The game continued without missing a beat. The Perry League background noise simply became a little more high-pitched.
Beautiful and bashful Mae, 6, grazed the ball on her first attempt, then came back with a beautiful, straight, strong hit on her second try. Her sweet little brother, Arden, 4, waited patiently on the bench with Mom and later delivered a couple of fabulous hits of his own with the fire bat.
There was plenty of action during the halftime freeze-pop break, too.
Isabel, 6, took advantage of the pause to run the bases while the other children gathered around the cooler for freeze pops. Coach Margi crouched down and began opening the brightly colored tubes as quickly as possible while a crowd of children, not quite — but very nearly — blocking out the daylight, announced their freeze-pop preferences like a flock of hungry little birds.
Ender was happy to receive his favorite flavor: “Red.”
Thanks to the Breviks for supplying this week’s freeze pops — and for the popcorn two weeks ago, which was popped and served just in time before the rain sent everyone home from the park.
Jamon, meanwhile, declined a freeze pop entirely. Instead, he used the halftime break for additional training. He was hyper-focused on hitting the ball off the tee. This 2-year-old has priorities.
While the children took a break, Coach Yunus took the opportunity to restore some order to the batting circle by rearranging the bats. Normally, bats are tossed back after each at-bat, leaving them scattered in every direction. It was a small effort toward organization. Perry League remains Perry League.
Later in the evening, Matt Raska and his convoy of children on bicycles — and baby Simone in a bike trailer — rolled into Gaunt Park, bringing several children we had not yet seen this season. Callie, 6, Jimi, 5, and Rubi, 4, arrived smiling and appeared to be inseparable at the batting bench and the batting circle, where they collectively made important bat selections.
Little Isla, 2, loitered around the batting bench in her oversized tie-dye T-shirt and adorable blue high-top Converse much of the evening. She batted once, maybe twice, with some adult encouragement and seemed to be having a great time. Her grandparents adoringly watched her every move. I do believe their smiles were the biggest of all that evening.
Josie, 8, one of our more seasoned T-ballers, spent much of the evening helping throw balls in along the first-base sideline. She also found time to take a swing or two herself. As she ran home, Josie offered an important observation: “Even if I get too old for T-ball, I will still love it!”
And that is the whole idea.
Miles, 6, selected a red metal bat. This bat had an open-ended, hollow top. Miles noticed and filled it with field dirt. During one at bat he really tested the 1,000 strike limit. We estimate he got to around 988. Before his eventual connection with the ball, he knocked the tee over at least 10 times, and had to carefully, and somewhat slowly, refill the hollow bat with dirt between each attempt.
Ender, 8, followed suit, breaking with tradition this week by selecting the red metal bat instead of his usual Tiny Wooden Bat of Destiny. Ender filled it with field dirt. Then he hit the ball. The resulting cloud of dust was, frankly, impressive. It may be the first recorded Perry League at-bat involving a self-created dirt-launching device.
Ender’s parents, Mark and Jen, helped at the batting circle throughout the evening, taking article notes and doing their best to maintain some semblance of order — a noble pursuit.
Sarah, 9, with her very long braid, came up to bat. Mark, who works at a Montessori school and is familiar with student Sarah, decided to playfully ask her name. Sarah squinted at him. With a look that suggested the question was perhaps teasing, she replied: “You know!” And Mark did. And he smiled.
Arlo, 2, was in attendance wearing swim trunks that were perhaps a little too large for his diaper-less behind, offering a glimpse of truck-themed unders as he carefully and intentionally considered the available bats while Grandma patiently hovered nearby. Bat selection is an important decision in Perry League.
Daniel, 3, made his Perry League debut wearing “truck butt” pants and a steam thresher shirt. He brought along an enthusiastic family entourage and the unmistakable energy of a 3-year-old ready to explore the entire experience.
Some children arrive at 6 p.m. Some arrive at 7:25. Some come straight from the pool. Some arrive by bicycle. Some are visiting friends. Some are visiting from out of town. Some spend the evening batting. Some spend it chasing balls. Some dig in the dirt. Some help with the bases. Some come for one swing at the very end.
Time is fluid in Perry League. T-ball is there when you arrive.
Brothers Teddy, 8, and Jory, 3, came down from the pool near the end of the evening to have a swing or two.
Bash, 3, arrived late in the game, but just in time for the final at-bat of the evening. And what a hit it was.
That’s the beauty of Perry League. You can come late or leave early or stay longer to roll down the big hill or play on the playground. You can spend the evening batting, fielding, helping, wandering, digging, laughing, or simply watching.
You can be 2 years old and still have a say in which bat you want. You can be 8 years old and discover that helping younger kids is just as much fun as hitting.
You can arrive from the pool, ride in on a bicycle, bring a friend, celebrate a 100th birthday, give your coach a coin, turn your hair green, scream with your friends, carefully reposition the tee on home plate, yell “Reload! Coming in hot!” or fill a hollow bat with dirt.
There is room for all of it.
Now in its 56th year, Perry League is open to all children regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, disability or level of skill. The league operates under a few simple and unique rules: there are no teams, no assigned positions, no batting order, and every batter gets 1,000 strikes. Perry League is designed to provide children and their caregivers with a positive, low-pressure introduction to team sports, emphasizing participation, inclusion, fun and community over competition.
There are two more Friday evenings of Perry League in the 2026 season. We will be at Gaunt Park next Friday, July 31. Please note, this is also the final opportunity to join Perry League Plus, which offers additional skills coaching for older T-ballers interested in considering moving up to the Yellow Springs youth baseball program or beyond.
The final evening, Aug. 7, will feature our traditional abbreviated play, family potluck, and cookout. We will be watching the weather beforehand and announce whether the final gathering will take place at Gaunt Park or in the Bryan Center gym. Potluck sign-ups can be made on the Perry League Facebook page or at next week’s game.
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