Niles Main Street to host free ‘thank you’ cookout Friday

Published 10:59 pm Tuesday, August 9, 2011

This Friday marks the last of the city’s Free Friday Movies in the Park and Niles Main Street is presenting the film with a special thank you to the community.
Niles Main Street announced it would sponsor a free Community Thank You Cookout Friday, beginning at 5 p.m.
The idea, executive director Lisa Croteau said, came from the Main Street board of directors, specifically Jim Scarpone, “as a fun way to thank our volunteers and the community in general for the support they give the program and our downtown.”
Members of the board will be manning the grills Friday night, serving up hot dogs and chips just behind the Wonderland theater on Front Street in downtown Niles.
“We’ll have two to three gas grills with board members cooking up hot dogs and other board member serving up plates,” Croteau said.
Local chef and Hunter Ice Festival carver Andrew Thistlethwaite of Riverfront Cafe will also be serving up something special for the event.
“Chef Andrew is carving us an ice lemonade luge so kids and grown ups, can take their drink from the cooler and have it chilled by pouring it through the ice luge,” Croteau said.
The event is being funded through a private donation and those planning on coming downtown for the cookout are encouraged to stay for the final installment of Free Friday Movies in the park — a showing of “Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”
The cookout will last from 5 to 8 p.m.
For more information or to RSVP for event organizers, see Niles Main Street’s Facebook page.