Gerard Benderoth, 40, a former NYC police officer now with the Haverstraw Town Police, pulls a 33,000 lb. truck while competing in the Maximum Human Performance Liberty Strongman Classic as part of the Welcome America July 4 celebration. (Michael S. Wirtz / Staff Photographer)

Posted on Sat, Jul. 4, 2009

July 4th celebration strong, entertaining

By Michael Vitez

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Twelve of the world's strongest men dragged the Philadelphia Museum of Art down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Saturday and dropped it in LOVE Park.

OK, well. They could have.

Competing in the Liberty Strongman Classic along the Parkway, as part of the Sunoco Welcome America festival, each man single-handedly pulled a 33,000-pound truck 60 feet, and repeatedly flipped 1,000-pound tires - a beautiful expression of the freedom in America to pursue your dream, whatever it may be.

Thousands crowded the Parkway on a beautiful July Fourth for a day of fun, food, music, and fireworks.

Sheryl Crow performed a free concert.

But strongmen ruled the afternoon.

Glenn Ross, weighing 425 pounds, flew in from Belfast. His back was as broad as Ireland, his stomach as big as the Liberty Bell - and his head as red as a Jersey tomato as he strained to pull the 33,000-pound truck.

In another event, each strongman had to stand, or sit, and tug a 5,200-pound humvee toward him.

But it turns out the vehicle was too light - too easy for the strongmen to pull. Organizers piled five beefy men into the humvee, but tugging it was still the easiest of six events.

Gerard Benderoth, a police officer from Upstate New York and massive at 370 pounds, competed in his kilt. He was a New York City cop on 9/11, pulling people out of the World Trade Center, but he has retired to a small-town police force. He has a tolerant wife who lets him keep a 300-pound log in the hallway of their home. Lifting logs overhead is another strongman event.

Valerie Hairrell, a spectator and a cancer survivor, was decked out in red, white, and blue and enjoying the Strongman Classic with her "very significant other," John Sharman, also dressed in patriotic colors.

"We're ballroom dancers," Hairrell said, "so I appreciate the strength of these guys. But I don't think they dance.

"I'm loving every day, and I love my country," she added. "We have so much to be thankful for."

Sharman agreed, and he professed to have deep patriotic roots. "My fourth great-grand-uncle was bailed out of jail by Patrick Henry in Chesterfield, Va., in 1772," he said.

As Sharman was talking, contestant Mark Philippi, an eight-time World's Strongest Man competitor, walked up next to them, and Hairrell squeezed his immense biceps.

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed. "And that's just the arm."

She turned to Sharman. "Are we rooting for this guy?"

"The way you're touching him," Sharman replied, "I guess we are."

Like many enjoying perfect weather on the Parkway, Hairrell and Sharman planned to hang around until the Crow concert and the fireworks that followed.

Arriving by 3 o'clock, five Swarthmore College students spread a blanket in the grass under tall oaks near the stage. In honor of America, they ate apple pie baked by one of the five, Jen Spindel, and enjoyed the breeze and the lazy afternoon while waiting for the concert.

Joe and Donna Peters of Philadelphia strolled along the Parkway. Donna Peters, who wore a red-white-and-blue tiara, had served in the Air Force for the last 12 years and just moved back home, she said.

"Freedom is a wonderful thing, but it's definitely not free," she said. "We earn it."

As afternoon turned to evening, tens of thousands of people settled in for the concert and fireworks.

Couples cuddled on blankets, and families played card games. Children blew bubbles, and the hungry waited in lines for funnel cakes, cheesesteaks, corn on the cob, or waffle cones with ice cream.

Christina Campbell, who had just moved back to South Jersey from Prince Edward Island, Canada, wanted daughters Ashley, 8 and Hope, 5, who have dual citizenship, to remember their first American Independence Day.

"They have fireworks in Canada," Campbell said, "but nothing like in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July."

Amid the sea of humanity, as Frisbees flew and jugglers spun plates and the crowd grew, Scott Davison and his wife, Megan, sat peacefully reading on a blanket. He was revisiting The Hobbit, which he said was even better the second time, and she was enjoying a novel, Barefoot.

Asked if she had any profound thoughts about her country on this July Fourth, Megan Davison said, "We're in a better place now than a year ago."

Sahra Silanee and her boyfriend, Colin Champ, ate strawberries and played backgammon. Their evening was about as perfect as life can be, except he kept winning, five games to two.

Soon enough, on came Crow, followed by fireworks, for many the perfect ending to a very good day.