For fans of the Chicago Cubs, there’s always next year. For local fans of baton twirling—there’s no such guarantee.

For 39-consecutive years, America’s Youth on Parade has held its national baton twirling competition at the University of Notre Dame.

For 2009, the twirling group is weighing its options, because Notre Dame will be renovating the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center.

A little twirling apparently goes a long way in stimulating the economy.

The St. Joseph County Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that last years event was worth $2.1 million to the local hospitality industry.

The event typically has some 4,500 people staying in town for an entire week. It creates a demand for hotel rooms that is said to be second only to Notre Dame football.

It’s also an event that the local economy has been able to count on for 39-consecutive years.

“It’s tradition that AYOP (America’s Youth on Parade) has been at this location for, oh my gosh, I did AYOP here when I was her age,” said Lisa Reneeguaglianl, nodding in the direction of her daughter.

While the Reneeguaglianl family is from Buffalo, New York, Lisa would like to see the event stay at Notre Dame: “Yes we do care, we love it here, we don’t want it to go anywhere else.”

Mark Malott’s daughter has been part of AYOP for three years. While he is from Noblesville, Indiana and would like to see the event stay in the Hoosier state, he also admitted, “where ever it’s going to be, is where we’re going to be.”

Contestants do come from all 50-states, and some come from other countries.

While Notre Dame has been home to the event for the past 39-years, AYOP wasn’t always held here.

“Well it originally, I think the very first one was the University of Mississippi in July where that was very uncomfortable, the heat,” said Deborah Johnson, AYOP coach. “It was moved to New York, I know, at one time,” she said.

Johnson said she wasn’t sure how long AYOP had been at Notre Dame but that her daughter is 35, and “she was here as a three or four year old, so it’s been a lot of years.”

While participants remained focused on this year’s competition, that doesn’t mean they were unconcerned about next year’s event.

“We’ve heard that it might be local still, and we heard that Vegas is also an option,” said AYOP parent Pat Butkus.

Butkus is from the suburbs north of Chicago and she would like to keep the 2009 competition close to home.

She also indicates that the South Bend area is beginning to feel a little like home. “We love our hotel, we’ve got a wonderful place to stay. They’ve been very kind to us actually they even brought flowers to our coach yesterday when they heard we had done some big wins.”
Don Sartell, the man who runs the competition, told News Center 16 that he hopes to make a final decision on next year’s venue by September of this year.

Sartell said he had three options. The first was to relocate the event to another town. The second was to postpone it for a year. The third was to keep it local by utilizing facilities on the campuses of IUSB and St. Mary’s College, while making use of the Century Center as well.