Hinckley’s buzzards put firm’s designs on T-shirts
Medina County Gazette
By RACHEL MYERS
Staff Writer
HINCKLEY TWP. — The Ides of March is traditionally deemed ominous, as it marks the anniversary of the day Julius Caesar was murdered a few thousand years ago.
But it also signals the anniversary of another (slightly more pleasant) time — spring; more specifically, the famed buzzards that bring it faithfully back to Hinckley Township each year.
While most in the area are familiar with “Buzzard Day” and “Buzzard Sunday,” when the 7,000-person population township swells by at least a couple thousand, Ruth Fitzgibben and her employees have what they call “Buzzard Week.”
Fitzgibben, president of the Hinckley Chamber of Commerce, owns Creative Screenworks, a small print shop on West 130th Street that specializes in custom signs and apparel.
For the last eight years, Fitzgibben and her team have devoted an entire week to producing specially designed T-shirts, aprons and bibs for the occasion — all with a different logo than the year before.
“They’re collectibles,” Fitzgibben said. “We have people that call and order them from all over the country.”
One man even came from Australia and bought about 10 shirts for his family, she said.
The Creative Screenworks crew also produces buzzard shirts for the chamber, although that design hasn’t changed since it was created by artist Al Capp 49 years ago.
Fitzgibben and in-house graphic artist Ann Platten fashioned the newest turkey vulture caricature,
which will be printed on every color from Ohio-sky gray to can’t-miss-me orange.
“I don’t know why,” Fitzgibben said. “But the brighter the color, the more it sells.”
Each garment takes about five or six minutes to finish by hand. Although it consumes almost a full business week to crank them all out, she said this is generally a slower season for the print shop anyway.
But once a booth is set up to purchase the items, they’re snatched up almost as fast as the 3,000 sausage and pancake breakfasts served on Buzzard Sunday.
Last year, within a matter of hours, Fitzgibben said she sold out of more than 200 T-shirts and sweatshirts at between $10 and $18 a pop. That’s in addition to the 100 or so more sold by the chamber and another 100 ordered throughout the year.
“The buzzards really put our town on the map,” she said. “They’re our claim to fame.”
Other memorabilia, such as mugs, keychains, hats and toy buzzards are sold by the chamber and the Cleveland Metroparks, which is sponsoring today’s watch at Buzzard’s Roost.
That’s where “official buzzard spotter” Bob Hinckle plans to stake out the spot at 6:30 this morning until the birds decide to show their featherless heads.
Although reports have trickled in that their 6-foot, V-shaped wings have been seen circling the area recently, Hinckle said it’s not official until he says so.
“I think they’re simply mistaken,” he said of the sightings. “People are so anxious for spring, perhaps they’re hallucinating.”
The chief of outdoor education at Cleveland Metroparks, Hinckle said the turkey vultures (actually no relation to turkeys) likely nest in the Hinckley Reservation because of the high rock ledges, which provide distance from predators.
Local folklore, however, would have one believe it has more to do with the Great Hinckley Hunt of 1818, when hundreds of animals, including foxes and bears, were killed by settlers for destroying livestock. The buzzards, expert scavengers, supposedly were drawn to the thawing carcasses the next year and every one since.
Whatever the buzzards’ magnet to Hinckley, they possess an unmistakable draw to the humans who claim them — and sport their likeness.
