Magic, merriment, lunch and goodies were the highlight of the afternoon for the more than Summit Hill children who attended the Summit Hill Recreation Commission's third annual Back-To-School picnic at the Ginter Park on the south side of the community on Saturday.

"It's the end of the summer and we wanted to have a picnic to have some outdoor activities to give something to do to get them out of the house for awhile," said Commission President Monica Marshall.The activities, planned by Marshall and Commission members Jenny Kosciolek, Jodi McAndrew and Dave McAndrew, included a lawn golf toss contest, a ball toss into buckets of water, an obstacle course that Marshall described as hilarious which required the children to use some of the rides in the park along with other obstacles placed by the commission."The children received tickets for the various activities, and they were able to use the tickets for a chance at several prizes we had for them," Marshall said. Toward the end of the picnic after all the activities, the children ate hot dogs, rice krispie treats and other snacks while Marshall and McAndrew held the drawing awarding prizes to the lucky children.In addition to the activities, the Summit Hill Heritage Center also contributed to the festivities by providing a magic show for the children. Black Diamond Entertainment Company magic entertainer David Wargo kept the children engaged and entertained with various feats of magic and comedy. Bags of candy donated to the picnic by the Heritage Center were also handed out."This was our third year doing this and I think it was very successful this year. We had 32 children attend," said Marshall.Marshall said the next event will be a pair of Halloween parties on Saturday, October 20th at the Hilltop Community Center."We will be having a Halloween party for the younger children during the afternoon and a dance for the older ones from 7 to 9 p.m. that evening," she said.She also added a correction to the story about the picnic and the work that was done to improve the Ginter Park in last week's TIMES NEWS."All of the benches in the park were donated by the Sons of the American Legion," said Marshall."We are still renovating the parks," Marshall added.This includes redoing the swing set, installing new swings at the park near the Little League field, and installing junior height basketball hoops at the court there. There is also plans to install a new teeter-totter at the Ginter Park to complement the new rides and pavilion work done there.Marshall said that anyone who would like to volunteer their time or talent to assist the commission with its activities can reach her through the Summit Hill Borough Hall at (570) 645-3405.