J.R. Briggs

Lansdale Mayoral Debate: Sumo Wrestling

September 16, 2009

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Many of you have asked me about the quirky little event that I helped out with on Saturday: Sumo in the Park. In place of a debate between Lansdale’s mayoral candidates (and good friends) Ben Gross and Andy Szekely decided to have a sumo match at the park. Why have a debate when these guys go on family vacations together and they agree on almost every issue? Yeah, that doesn’t happen in politics every day. So, why not have something that people would actually come out and enjoy watching? Ben Gross saw me at the gym a few months ago and asked if I’d be interested in being the referee for the event.

Sure. Why not. Any way I can serve the community, right?

The event went well (the crowd was moderate, but would have been better if it wasn’t threatening rain all day). But there was a lot of news coverage of the event. And it was an absolute riot! The event also raised money for Manna on Main, the local soup kitchen/food pantry, which is one of local organizations that Renew has partnered with officially.

The local Lansdale Reporter picked up on it and featured a video and a slideshow of images that included the undercard bouts (other candidates running for open council seats) as well as the main event between the candidates running for mayor.

The Morning Call (Allentown/Bethlehem, PA) was there as well and posted a video on their site.

So did the Philadelphia Inquirer – who also posted a short video online and a front page article and color pictures in the Local B Section of the Sunday edition.

I got an email the other day telling me that the St. Petersburg (FL) Times picked up the story.

So did the New York Post in their News of the Weird Section.

And its now on YouTube.

Lansdale is bit quirky – in a good way. I’m grateful that here in Lansdale we don’t take ourselves too seriously. But the real question: should we take ourselves a little bit more seriously?

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