‘Good Morning Silver Creek’
ABC news show makes stop at Grape FestivalBy JOEL CUTHBERT
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Fact Box
On TV
What - Grape stomp in Silver Creek
Who - Good Morning America news team
When - This morning, between 7 and 9 a.m.
Where - ABC, local channel 7
SILVER CREEK - Regional agriculture and a grape belt tradition took center stage this morning with an appearance on a national news show.
The hosts of Good Morning America made a whistle stop at Arlou Farms in the village of Silver Creek Tuesday morning as part of a tour across the states. The segment appeared on the show at 8:10 a.m. today.
During their brief stopover in our locale, the early morning foursome participated in a traditional grape stomp which is scheduled to air on their show today - a fitting prelude to the 41st annual Festival of Grapes which begins Thursday.
"I think (the whistle-stop tour is) to find out what the hopes of parts of the nation are as far as the upcoming elections go, and to get a taste of what (the) important places to visit are," Helen Baran, chairman of the Lake Erie Concord Grape Belt Heritage Association, explained. "The reason they stopped in our area was because of the grape industry."
Although they were on a tight schedule as they made their way by train from Niagara Falls to Erie, Diane Sawyer's love of Lucille Ball and the infamous grape stomping episode of "I Love Lucy" was enough to take the morning team on a short detour. Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Sam Champion and Chris Cuomo paid a visit to Sam and Patti Ark's farm - located along Route 5 - to stomp grapes using the same equipment used during the Festival of Grapes each year.
They also conducted an interview with Baran on the importance of the grape industry to the region and the various goods produced here.
"(The Good Morning America crew was) so gracious and they seemed to really be enjoying themselves," Charlene M. Ryder, communications specialist for the National Grape Cooperative, said. "It was a beautiful day in the vineyards. You could smell the grapes in the air; the sun was shining. It couldn't have been any nicer."
Host Patti Ark said the event generated a lot of fun and excitement on the farm, with around 75 friends and family members in attendance. She also said ABC crew members were extremely polite and personable.
To sweeten an already delectable day, she baked a homemade grape pie to the crews delight. When Sawyer tasted it, Ark said, she grabbed it and asked if she could take the rest to the crew on the train, and the platter was returned a little while later completely empty.
The Ark's - members of the National Grape Cooperative - also supplied the entire crew with Welch's 100 percent pure grape juice, convincing Roberts, who was amazed how good it tasted, to begin purchasing Welch's products.
Best of all, however, was the reaction of the ABC crew - none of whom had ever visited the grape belt or Lake Erie - when they unboarded the train at their stopoff point where the railroad meets the vineyards. Ark said the entire crew, from the show hosts to its producers and cameramen, were in awe of the beauty of the region from the moment they arrived to their departure.
"That kind of exposure, if we could get more of that, would be wonderful," Ark said. "That is what we all want, I think, is for people to think of us as a positive place and not a place where it snows all the time ... Any time anybody from somewhere else can come and appreciate what we have and see it for what it really is is good ... Hopefully, many more people will be exposed to our region and the beauty of it."
Comments on this article can be sent to jcuthbert@observertoday.com
