The Lima Bean Festival – Lima, Ohio

When Helen Fink in Lima, Ohio heard that I was going to be in Indiana for the summer, she invited me to come skip with her!

Shortly after I arrived, she called to say the annual Lima Bean Festival was happening in just two weeks and she wanted to set up some skipping appearances for me while I was there.

Helen did an amazing job. She registered me to skip in 5K walk/run event, convinced the YMCA to sponsor a JUMP START YOUR JOY workshop, and scheduled several media interviews. She also bought a bunch of smiley face buttons, keychains, and bottle of bubbles to help us spread as much positive energy around Lima as possible. That’s exactly what we did!

The Lima News took a picture of us skipping with a bunch of kids at the Lima Bean Festival and they ran it on the front page of their Sunday paper! We also got coverage on both the Fox and NBC TV stations…And did an in-studio radio interview too!

The highlight of my trip was getting to meet and skip with Beanie the Lima Bean…Lima’s big green mascot. As you can see from the pictures, Beanie is quite enthusiastic about skipping!

Talk about Midwestern hospitality! They really rolled out the red carpet and made me feel incredibly welcomed. The thing that I have realized the most from my summer in the Midwest is that this really is the heart of America!! There is something to be said for a more simple way of life.

I am extremely grateful to Helen Fink for being such a wonderful hostess…I know that after our time together we will be life long friends!! Skip on, Helen! Skip on, Lima!!