'This is kid driven': Ravenna High School students help throw first Jo-Jo Festival downtown

The humble jojo was the star of the show as Ravenna celebrated its first Jo-Jo Festival downtown Friday.

Students at Ravenna High School civics class partnered with Main Street Ravenna to present the first ever Jo-Jo Festival, a homage to the breaded, deep-fried potato wedge with a strong connection to Northeast Ohio.

While the students who helped organize the event are high school seniors, planners hope to make it an annual event.

Arasin Hughes, executive director of Main Street Ravenna, said a punch card to sample jojos from each vendor cost $5. One of the nearly 10 vendors included Guido's, which didn't have an outdoor booth, but provided samples to people who came into the restaurant with a card.

Activities included a dunk tank provided by the Portage Metropolitan Housing Authority, where people could toss a potato at the target to dunk a student or teacher in the Ravenna school district. There were also potato sack races, which drew the young and the young at heart, and potato art.

A steady crowd showed up in the early hours of the festival, and Hughes expected a bigger turnout once people got off work. Musician Kendall Chalkwater took the stage at 5:30 p.m.

"It's beautiful weather for this," she said.

Matt Wunderle, who teaches the civics class at Ravenna High School, said he and his students will talk about the festival in the days ahead to see about bringing it back next year.

"I see no reason not to," he said. "It's a really fun event."

Wunderle said the hope is that the seniors who are staying local will continue to run the Jo-Jo Festival as community members after they graduate. Next year's seniors, he said, will take on a different project.

Mayor Frank Seman stood by the Ravenna flagpole, watching people take turns dunking a teacher. He said he hopes the event will return.

"This is kid driven," he said.

Some food vendors had jojos or potato wedges on their regular menu, while others brought them in just to participate in the taste test. People could vote by putting their sample cards in jars representing their favorite vendor. Gionino's Pizzeria, which was serving up multiple flavors of the potato wedge in addition to the traditional breaded and deep fried jojo, appeared to be an early favorite.

Cory Rabatin, who recently opened his Ravenna-based food truck The Weiner Guy, had a long line of people waiting to buy hot dogs and nachos and also get a sample of jojos. He said he's considering adding them, or some kind of potato product, to his menu.

"We can do any kind of potato product," he said. "We just got the truck."

Reporter Diane Smith, who waited in line for jojo samples along with the rest of the festival patrons, can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.