Wed 12/31 @ 10:30PM
In 2012, the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop started a new, family-friendly New Year’s celebration: its annual Popcorn Ball Drop at Triangle Park in downtown Chagrin Falls. Each year a committee of local citizens spends weeks building the 240-pound, six-foot ball with the red sash that tumbles from a flagpole at midnight.
Celebration starts around 10:30pm at Township Hall in downtown Chagrin Falls, with hot chocolate, cookies and historic films, and heads outside at 11 with live music and dancing on the Triangle. At midnight Jim Brosius will ignite the town’s historic cannon and the ball will drop, along with 400 regular-sized popcorn balls launched into the crowd.
This year’s celebration is bittersweet. The ball this year is named “Miss Sally” after Sally Florkiewicz who conceived of the idea for the event and took it to popcorn shop owner Dewey Forward. She was a long-time member of the committee that put the event together. A longtime civic activist, she passed away earlier this year at the age of 81.
“It is an honor to name the giant popcorn ball after Miss Sally,” says Forward. “She was a beloved activist and local supporter of pretty much everything. Miss Sally passed away this year, so we thought how fitting it was to name it after her.”