By Melissa Wagoner
Three years ago Lara Ghio Gaitan and her identical twin sister, Vicky Ghio-Lopez, attended the largest celebration of twins in the country – the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio.
“It’s just a place for twins to gather,” Ghio-Lopez explained. “There were newborns to 90-year-old ladies. Everybody just brings coolers and just watches the twins walk by.”
Enthusiastic about their experience – but not eager to travel halfway across the country each year – Gaitan and Ghio-Lopez began searching for something closer to home but came up empty-handed.
“I said, ‘We’ve just got to do something here,’” Gaitan remembered.
Although Silverton – where the sisters live only blocks apart – was an easy choice, finding a date and venue proved trickier. And that’s when they thought of piggy-backing their new festival onto one that was already a community favorite – the annual Homer Davenport Community Festival.
“I just like the atmosphere,” Ghio-Lopez said of the event. “I’m sure everybody will get a kick out of it. And it could be really good for Silverton.”
Although the Ohio Twins Days Festival takes place over several days with a myriad of happenings, the Northwest Twin Gathering, as Gaitan and Ghio-Lopez are calling their new event, will mainly consist of a parade – at least this year.
Interested parties should meet on Aug. 3 at 9 a.m. at the parade’s starting location in the parking lot of the Silverton Middle School on Brown Street and look for the Pacific Coast Twins sign.
“There is only one rule… you must dress identical during the parade walk,” the group’s Facebook event page states. “This applies as much to 80-year-old-men/women as to five-year-olds and to tiny babies wheeled around. The plan is to walk the parade and have some fun.”
Because, as Gaitan said, “As a grown-up you just don’t dress alike anymore.”
The Northwest Twin Gathering
Homer Davenport Days Parade Saturday, Aug. 3, 9 a.m.
Twins – identical or fraternal – or other multiples welcome. Dress alike.
Silverton Middle School parking lot on Brown Street near Schlador
www.facebook.com/Pacific-Coast-Twins-395564321025903
