New Year's Eve is always a busy day at Roberts Beverages, employee Fran McConnell of Altoona said Sunday.
That's why fellow employee Kris Civils spent Sunday afternoon moving cases of beer inside the business at 1800 Pleasant Valley Blvd.
"I'm just making sure everything is going to be cold," Civils said.
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Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
Mel Kepner of Kepner’s Grandview Meats in Altoona rolls a boneless pork roast on Friday.
"That's what he's doing today," McConnell said, "so tomorrow goes easier."
For many businesses, New Year's Eve is a day to have supplies stocked and ready for patrons making plans to end one year and start another. For some, those plans will translate into a night of dining, drinking, dancing and a champagne toast at midnight. For others, it's a night at home with pizza, beer and a good movie. Or maybe chicken wings.
At TK's Subs and Six-Pack Shop, 203 E. Sixth Ave., employee Mary Stevens predicted that chicken wings are likely be the big attraction on New Year's Eve.
"We usually sell tons of wings on Monday nights because we run a special," Stevens said. "So because New Year Eve falls on a Monday, we doubled our beer order and our wings order."
While food and drink are generally the main attractions of any New Year's Eve celebration, they're not the only attractions.
In addition to serving hotdogs and sauerkraut at its New Year's Eve party, Splinters Champion Lanes, 1879 E. Pleasant Valley Blvd., is offering three hours of late night bowling, from 10:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m.
For hockey fans, the Johnstown Tomahawks is offering some help to ring in the new year. The club is prepared to give away 2,000 cowbells to patrons arriving for the team's 6 p.m. game.
In State College, for the 17th year, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts will host a First Night menu of activities that include vaudeville acts, storytellers and belly dance performances amid 80 ice sculptures that were under construction on Sunday.
Closer to home, the Hollidaysburg Area YMCA was preparing Sunday for its New Year's Eve Twilight Race, starting with a run at 4 p.m. and a walk at 5 p.m., both through the Lights on the Lake display at Lakemont Park.
"I have had a pile of new registrants today," YMCA desk clerk Polly McCabe said Sunday. "We have a lot of families that like to walk through the lights."
As of Sunday afternoon, more than 600 people were signed up to participate, but McCabe said she expects that number will continue climbing.
"Some people wait until the last minute to sign up," she said. "They want to see how cold it's going to be."
Altoona Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.
