Sun and Fun put into one day for 20 years

RIO RANCHO — Two decades worth of sun and fun annually is a lot of ground to cover. So when it came to the history of the Mayor’s Sunday is Funday, who better to ask than its co-founder Dave Heil and the current Mayor Gregg Hull?

Heil gave the details of its beginning, reminiscing about his time alongside co-founder Tony Popper.

“Basically, the event that the city had was the Mayor’s Ball and back then, I forget what it was, $50, $75 a head. Tony Popper, who had been a city councilor before and he had also been a member of the Kiwanis Club, he said we should have something that everybody in the community can afford to go to,” Heil said.

The Mayor’s Gala, put on by the Rio Rancho Community Foundation, charged $250 a seat a last year’s event, according to the registration form. Heil stated that the entry fee for Sunday is Funday has been and always will be $1, no more, no less. Kids younger than 12 years old get in free. However, he said some people manage to sneak in without paying anyway.

Those funds are also put toward the Kiwanis Club’s activities in the community, nonprofits and other groups in need, according to Heil. A majority of those funds come from vendor fees, he said. But he added that is essentially the point because the needy families of Rio Rancho are who get those funds back.

“(Popper) used to try Mayor (Tom) Swisstack about how expensive his Mayor’s Ball was and the fact that very few people could attend,” he said.

That’s where Popper got the idea to host a community picnic that anyone could attend, according to Heil.

The first event was held at the park near the High Resort Sports Complex, and Heil said there was only about 600 people present, hardly stretching the boundary of the park.

The turnout wasn’t the only difference Heil remembered.

“Back then, Tony and I would go around and knock on doors. You know, social media wasn’t nearly as prominent as it is today,” he said. “He would make connections with people he knew, and I would do the same with people I knew and would just go visit them.”

He admitted that the first few years presented difficulties in getting people out to the event, for both vendors and attendees. But its popularity grew as they talked to more people each year.

{p dir=”ltr”}Popper passed away in March 2013, but the event still has themes of him throughout, such as the Tony Popper Memorial Trophy.

Heil also recalled the event banner he and Popper carried to promote the event in the Fourth of July parade.

Heil talked more about his relationship with Popper as well, which was a little unorthodox in a couple of ways.

“That was an interesting relationship. So, here you have a Catholic Republican and a Jewish Democrat that are out to brunch at least two or three times a week, but we both have the same objective with regard to the community,” he said with a chuckle.

He said they would argue politics frequently but also were able to have discussions about how to accomplish Kiwanis business. Though unorthodox, the relationship worked. Today, Heil admits, a relationship like that is almost unheard of.

“They’re certainly harder to come by, and we need to work at it. It’s amazing what happens when you talk with people,” he said.

He added that the Sunday is Funday event is a chance for people to do just that. Over the years, he has seen some really fun aspects to the event that anyone can enjoy. Though, he said, they learned as they went along because some activities didn’t go as planned.

Hull, who can attest to some of those learning curves, has been a part of the Sunday is Funday event for about half of its existence.

“My first Sunday is Funday as mayor was 2014. I had just been elected and sworn in in April,” he said. “At that time, the Sunday is Funday was held over on the Rio Rancho football practice field. There were no trees, no swimming pool, no community center; it was hot.”

For Hull, there were a number of memorable challenges for him as mayor at the event.

“I think the first competition we did was actually laser tag,” he said.

He also remembered the chilly ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, difficult obstacle courses and some of the more painful activities.

“One year, we did this big obstacle course, and we decided after that we wouldn’t do that again, because I think that nearly killed me. It was a very long, difficult obstacle course. It looked easy because it was a bunch of inflatables. But let me tell you, when you’re trying to navigate through those inflatables, you wear out really quickly,” Hull said.

Both Heil and Hull recalled the activity where people dressed in knocker balls, wearable inflated balls, and attacked each other. While it was a tremendous amount of fun, they said, some people got hurt. Heil thought it had something to do with the differing sizes of participants.

Heil also remembered dunk tanking mayors, turning Swisstack into a literal ice cream sundae (by his choice) and more.

“The kids made an ice cream sundae out of my menu. It was like ice cream and syrup. So we had to have the fire department there with the hoses to clean (Swisstack) off. But he was such a good sport about it,” Heil laughed as he remembered.

Though he had fun with it, Hull does not miss the dunk tank.

“I actually got very sick after the dunk tank. That particular year wasn’t very hot, and so there was kind of a cool wind blowing, and so it was a little chilly for me. It was a lot of fun, because everybody had a great time,” he said.

He and Heil agreed that changing the activity to the kickball tournament was the best possible change they could have made. The prize is the Tony Popper Memorial Trophy.

For Hull, the best part is talking with vendors and attendees at the event.

“What really makes it the fun is when I walk around, go to all the different vendors and all the different booths and see people. And people come up to me and they just want to say hello. Just spending the day chatting with people that come to the park, it’s always a fantastic event just to meet and interact with a whole lot of people. I always enjoy that immensely,” Hull said.

The event has evolved over the last 20 years, and Heil was amazed at how much it had grown.

Heil said he has also pondered how much longer he will take part in the management of Sunday is Funday. He says he has dealt out some of the responsibility to other leaders in the community.

“But the part about keeping track of who all is participating and who’s planning it ... I need to find a way to pass that off to some people that, when it’s my time to not be here, to somebody that can pick it up and keep going,” he said.

He has a few young people in mind to take over, but he intends to follow through before that happens.

“My wife, she was saying, ‘Well, now that you’ve done 20 years, why don’t you just retire from that?’ And I say, ‘God will tell us when I’m going to retire from this,’” he said.