A Brief History of Picnic in the Park

For a couple of summers in the mid-1980s, the “Uptown Saline” group—Saline’s downtown development association at the time—held the “Pre-Prix” mini-car race on a weekend just before Detroit’s riverfront Grand Prix.

It was a fun event, with go-karts racing all around the streets of Saline, but for a variety of reasons, the race never saw its third annual running.

Suddenly Saline was without a major festival or attraction for the summer. (Note: This was in pre-Celtic Festival days.) What would community leaders find to fill in?

The answer: Picnic in the Park. In the early days of the picnic, this simple, but nifty idea—an informal summer family reunion for the extended family of Saline residents past and present—was mainly the brainchild and labor of five dedicated people:

• Kurt Schmerberg, then the head of Saline’s Chamber of Commerce, handled logistics for the event, including insurance, permits, licenses, etc.
• Mark Hopper, then Saline’s mayor, coordinated the city’s involvement.
• Mary Ann Fogel-Alaniz, then the manager of Saline’s Comerica Bank branch, served as the main fundraiser for the event.
• Fred Alaniz, Mary Ann’s husband, focused on event promotion – especially the ads on Saline’s local-access cable TV station.
• Gary Hahn, a Saline resident and Ann Arbor area attorney, handled legal matters.

The first Picnic in the Park, held in 1988, was, in Kurt Schmerberg’s words, “a rather loosely organized affair.” Still, that successful try-out of the concept set the pattern for the nearly two decades of Picnics in the Park to follow.

The 1988 get-together saw musical entertainment, kids’ games and activities, card games and a beer tent for adults, and lots and lots of good summer-style eating for everyone—just as the this years' Annual Picnic in the Park will include this August.

Of course, there have been changes over the years:

• For the first seven or eight picnics, Saline’s American Legion post served a scrumptious chicken broil. However, as annual attendance steadily increased, this became difficult and expensive to manage. The chicken broil has since been replaced with a simpler menu of burgers, fries, and pizza.
• The early years also featured spirited softball games featuring fun team match-ups—for example, Chamber of Commerce members versus city employees. Today many of these same competitors prefer to stare each other down, not across the softball diamond, but at the picnic’s Blackjack tables. (Guess we’re all just getting old!)
• For over two decades, Craig Faiman of Saline’s Arrow Energy and Tom Wisely have spearheaded an annual gathering of area automobile enthusiasts and their vehicles. Craig and his cohorts had been holding their Saline Street Machines show in various area parking lots. But after a few years, they decided to piggyback their event onto Picnic in the Park. This gave it a more festive park-like atmosphere. And since the two events were able to share some facilities, both benefited financially. Combining the two events also helped to increase overall attendance.

Who knows what new Picnic in the Park traditions will arise and evolve? As with all good family reunions, wonderful new memories will be created each year.