The beginning of a dream started when the sons of Frank Preisendorfer, George and Chris brought home an ad of a nation wide contest being hosted by Kraft Food Company. The ball started to roll when Sinso Scicchitano learned of the promotion and orginized the community.
In July 1960 headlines in the Bentleyville local paper "The Courier" read "THE CARAMEL KIDS ARE COMING". For the next several weeks these kids were joined by friends, neighbors and a dedicated committee of people who had one task at mind "WIN". Day after day town after town "The Caramel Kids" pushed on with the hopes and dreams to win the prize offered by Kraft Food Company a community baseball park. At 1:00 PM with sounding of the Bentleyville Fire Department siren the race to win began.
Every Friday for two months the committee met at Abbadini's Restaurant to tally the Caramel's sold. This Committee was J. Barry Stout, Sinso Scicchitano, Baldie Costa, Elizabeth Mesler, Fred Ryland, Mike Tolkach, Joe Getto, Guy Paul, Frank Preisendorfer, Dom Rastoka, and Jack Shemasek.
(Caramel Park Committee Meeting)
(Ad which appeared in "The Courier")
After months of hard work by our community the packages of Kraft Caramel Candy was counted and packed to be sent in to be officially counted.
(Bentleyville Community loading Kraft Caramel Bags at Bentleyville Post Office)
The final count was 55,319 bags sold. There was nothing further to but wait and wait to see if we won.
(Waiting for word is Sinso Scicchitano, Barry Stout and others from the Committee)
The results are in and the headlines in the October 20th 1960 edition of the "The Courier" read "BENTLEYVILLE WINS BALL PARK"
What would come next ? The answer was Party in the streets of Bentleyville.
Crowds gathered at Main St. and Washington St. to celebrate the "WIN"
Traffic came to a stop as the party began
The Caramel Kids look over the baseball park they won with officials of Kraft Food Company
Bentleyville Caramel Park Committee accepts a check for $20,000 from Kraft Food Company Officials
Jumping ahead to the "The Courier" headlines for Thursday April 25th, 1963 read "COMO SHOW TO SALUTE BENTLEYVILLE" On May 8th, 1963 the NBC Perry Como told the story of Caramel Park.
The Caramel Kids are shown playing ball with Perry Como
For the next 45 years hundreds if not thousands of kids grew up playing baseball at Caramel Park.
In 2004 J. Barry Stout who grew from ordinary resident of Bentleyville to a Senator of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania helped this generation to make improvements to Caramel Park that will help generations of our children to enjoy this truly community park.
2003 Bentleyville T-Ball
The story of Caramel Park will continue for many years to come.
The Story of Caramel Park which is used in this WEB page was gathered by various sources. We would like to thank Sinso "County Home" Scicchitano and Chris Preisendorfer for providing photo's and stories about this most important part of our history. If you should have any question or comments please feel free to Email.
What is a true dark day in our history Tuesday, March 22, 2005 one of the founding members of Caramel Park, life long resident, and true friend to young and old........
Sinso "County Home" Scicchitano
pasted away at the age of 87. We have lost a true icon in our community, but he will forever live in the hearts of every child who grew up playing ball in Caramel Park.
Last Up-dated 03/22/2005