Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette Participants reach out to try and catch numbered ping pong balls being dumped from a fire truck at Hancock's End of Summer Celebration. Saturday.

HANCOCK — The summer sun was out to say its goodbyes with the arrival of the autumn breeze during Hancock’s End of Summer Celebration Saturday. Coinciding with 906 Day, a large crowd chose to celebrate in Hancock with games, food and and live entertainment all day on Quincy Green.

The event marked an impressive lineup of summer activities to an end for the city, bringing together activities and musical lineups which were prevalent all season. Hancock DDA’s Todd Gast said Toni Saari was the hit of Key Ingredients, John Snyder gave a performance at Juhannus and Chad Borgen performed for Canal Rock, and this was a way to bring back the city’s favorites of the summer. Gast said the event was not only an end to the season, but a thank you to everyone who participated in any of the prior events.

“We really want to truly thank everybody, all the volunteers, all of those participants and everybody who came out to one of our events this year during the summer,” he said. “We just want to thank you for coming out. We really do appreciate it. We do these things for our community, and we truly hope that our community enjoys it.”

While music played throughout the day, visitors browsed numerous booths of local organizations, artists selling their creations and activities for children such as face painting. If children were in a playful mood, there were plenty of yard games and six bouncy houses for them to enjoy. Adults could play too — with cribbage, cornhole and pickleball tournaments taking place.

One of the highlights of the day was the ping pong ball drop, when a load of numbered ping pong balls were dropped from a fire ladder truck into the crowd on Quincy Green. Two drops took place, one for children and the other for adults. The number on the balls would indicate which prizes the catchers had won. Gast said the drop has become one of the most popular activities people look forward to.

“We’ve only been open for an hour, and that’s the one thing I keep getting asked is ‘When’s the ping pong ball drop?’ We noticed it’s one of the big draws of our End of Summer Celebration.”

While the drop was a highlight, many flocked across the street to the parking lot at the Huntington Bank building where a beer garden was set up in front of Chad Borgen and the Collective playing for the street dance. These events served as fundraisers for the Hancock Fire Department. Fire Chief Bill Lepisto said money raised from the event will go towards activities and events the department conducts throughout the year, including fire prevention lessons for elementary school children, sponsoring a junior hockey team and supporting the department’s tournaments.

Lepisto said the activities the department puts on at the End of Summer Celebration serve as a way to give back to the Hancock community after receiving support throughout the year, but most importantly enjoys seeing people have fun.

“It’s nice to see the kids having fun,” he said. “I’m pretty impressed with the size of the crowd today. I mean, maybe after that couple days of rain, everybody had a little cabin fever, and you just want to get out and enjoy what little bit of sunshine we have left.”

The celebration concluded later in the evening with a laser light show on Quincy Green.