Gorgeous Day for 'Park on Patch' Event in Wellesley

After so many rain-soaked days, everyone was out in downtown Wellesley Saturday—and Park on Patch was there to pick up the parking tab.

Wellesley Patch and Plymouth Rock Assurance co-sponsored the free parking day downtown along Central Street. The main hub of the event was a swag tent staffed by Patch staffers and representatives of Plymouth Rock Assurance of Needham and Newton.

Cone Crawl Coincidence

Coinciding with the Park on Patch event was Wellesley's first annual Cone Crawl, an event set up by the arts and scholarship group, The Wellesley Theatre Project (WTP). As a fundraiser, people paid $10 to get a t-shirt and a punch-card good for a free small cone or cup at six Wellesley ice cream and yogurt places such as JP Licks and Whole Foods. 

“It's a pub crawl-like gathering at different ice cream shops in downtown Wellesley from noon to 5 p.m. along Central Street,” explained Mike Scholl, president of WTP's Board of Directors.

Twins Megan and Lauren Hudson, of Wellesley, had already downed four cups of ice cream (at JP Licks, Truly Yogurt, Pinkberry and White Mountain Creamery), and were on their way to a fifth (at Boloco) when they stopped by the Park on Patch tent looking full, but game to complete the punch card.

WTP's Scholl loved that Patch was helping to draw attention to the Cone Crawl.

“We are thrilled that Patch is supporting the Cone Crawl and the town of Wellesley with free parking, said Scholl. "The [WTP] loves several of Patch's features, in particular, the community calendars.”

Throughout the day, dozens Cone Crawlers decked out in light blue "I Conquered the WTP Cone Crawl" t-shirts passed the Park on Patch swag tent. 

Park on Patch's Impact on Parking

Along with aiding the success of the Cone Crawl, Park on Patch had various effects on Wellesley, including a primary goal of increasing awareness of Patch. The tune from many free-parkers was summed up by New York native, Cecile Norris, who was back in her hometown to visit family. “I didn't know about Patch," she said, "but it will be something I will probably google when I get home.”

Business managers said it was hard to judge just how helpful the free parking was to their stores, because it already was a busy Saturday before Father's Day. "But if you ask any of the customers, I'm sure they're happy about it,” said Deb Sudin, the manager at Wellesley Books of 82 Central St.

Taking Sudin's advice, Patch spoke with Wellesley Books customer Kim Repella of Medway who said she, “Thought it was great. I actually got street parking instead of using the lot. I noticed I got to get closer to where I wanted to be.”

Tom Keith, the manager at Footstock at 33 Central St. said, “Any time you make parking easier, it helps business.”