By By JAN GRIFFEY / Niles Daily Star
NILES -- Bruce Teeple said all he'll hear about for the next couple of weeks from his son, Robert Sours, 7, is Bob the Builder day.
Teeple, along with hundreds of other Niles parents, brought their children to enjoy the wonders of construction at a day just for them on Saturday.
The Niles Main Street Initiative and the Downtown Development Authority, along with the help of a number of volunteers, like those from Niles Optimist Clubs, planned a day full of events to let Niles youngsters get up close and personal with some of the machinery and workings under way now in downtown Niles'.
Teeple and other parents agreed Saturday, young children -- boys and girls -- are enthralled with heavy construction equipment.
They waited in line on Saturday morning to climb aboard a big, bright yellow front-end loader, courtesy of Watson's Tree Service, Niles.
Lisa Croteau, of the DDA and the Main Street Initiative, said she was pleased with Saturday's turnout.
While some children waited to climb into the front-end loader's driver's seat, others were busy hammering nails into pieces of wood, putting together the squirrel feeders children Saturday had the opportunity to make.
Others were eating boxes of popcorn or making chalk drawings on the black asphalt of the parking lot at the corner of Second and Sycamore streets, where the event was held.
Each youngster at the end on Saturday left with a blue cloth toolbelt, constructed last week by an assembly line of downtown volunteers at Elizabeth Bradford's store on Main Street.
They also left with their very own yellow hard hat.