A Pierogi Drop Brings Wintery Fun and Parma Personality to New Year's Eve

Inspiration struck when Parma residents Bob and Kelly Lasecki were sitting at a Key West bar in the fall of 2024 with their friends Kim and Vernon Tomblin. What if there was a pierogi drop from the roof of Bob’s bar, Sloppy Bob’s at midnight on New Year’s Eve? As the friends riffed on the delightfully absurd idea Kim texted it to her neighbor, Parma mayor Timothy DeGeeter. 

This wasn’t just a half-baked and soon to be forgotten drunken idea. The four truly wanted to bring their neighbors together, but the logistical challenges were daunting — that is until Mayor DeGeeter stepped in and backed the project as a way to celebrate Parma’s bicentennial. 

A group of friends and community members lent their skills to construct the dropping mechanism and to design the star of the show, a 15-square-foot pierogi.

The city shut down State Road as the New Years Eve revelers snaked from Sloppy Bob’s to neighboring bars Red Circle Lanes and Good Olde Daze (stopping in between to make snow angels and have snowball fights). 

As midnight approached, a few hundred people gathered around to watch the oversized dumpling drop into a cup of sour cream. 

“Who would have thought our crazy idea would actually happen?” says Kim Tomblin.