Scenes from the New Albany Classic

Sunday was the New Albany Classic! It was our first time attending the event! A couple of months ago, I attended a blogger event hosted at the Wexner residence where I learned what to expect at the Classic, what goes on behind the scenes to make it happen and about the heart of the event: raising money for The Center for Family Safety and Healing! I had known very little about the event before that day, but after what I learned, I knew I wasn’t going to miss it! In full disclosure, my family received free tickets to attend this event, however any opinions stated here are my own!

Today what I’m going to share with you will be mainly pictures. We really had a great day! The event seemed well attended (an estimated 15,000 people), but because of how it was set up, it didn’t feel over-crowded! The lines for things were not very long – probably because there were so many different things to do! I feel like we only saw about half of the options of things to do, but our day included seeing screen-used movie props, the petting zoo, the CATCO stage, Graeter’s Ice Cream, and, of course, watching the Grand Prix!

First off, hand down, my kids’ most favorite part of the day was the Magic of Hollywood tent! They begged to go through it twice (so I have a lot of pictures!) and my 5 year old recreated it with Legos the next day! I was kind of afraid it would give them nightmares, but no one woke up at night, so, so far so good! These were all authentic screen-used props from well known movies! Here were some of our favorites:

 

We didn’t arrive in time for the concert, but we were able to see a good portion of the Grand Prix. If you are like me and had no idea what to expect, this is what happened: 25 riders and their horses completed jumps throughout the course. Those who completed the course without any falls – knocking over the hurdles – compete against each other in the jump off. The jump off was a timed event, to see who could compete the course the fastest. This year’s winner of the New Albany Classic was McLain Ward, riding Tina La Boheme. This was his 4th win at the Classic. You may recognize his name because he won a silver medal in the Olympics in Rio this year!

This year, the event raised $1.7 million dollars for The Center for Family Safety and Healing, an organization that is working to fight all aspects of family violence, including a campaign to address technology and it’s role in dating violence among teens.

Here is a glimpse of the rest of our day:

 

 

If a day like this sounds like fun, mark your calendars for next year as the Classic celebrates its 20th Anniversary! I know plans are already in the works for this milestone!

Thanks so much to the New Albany Classic team for providing this beautiful day full of fun for families, all while raising money to help families in need in our own community!

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