photo by: Caroline Boyer

The Pinkys are released on Oak Street during Marble Day 2012 in Bonner Springs. This year's Marble Day is set for Saturday, May 7.

BONNER SPRINGS — It’s about to be that time of year again, when those pink balls go tumbling down Oak Street in downtown Bonner Springs and marbles take center stage in a large-scale tournament in the city’s Centennial Park.

Marble Day is a time to get “wacky,” says Patricia Welicky, one of the event’s organizers and a board member of the Bonner Springs Arts Alliance, which for the second year in a row is hosting the day of largely free activities, entertainment and games a short trip east on Interstate 70 from Lawrence.

“We just take the time out from who we are and we decide to have some fun,” Welicky said of the 10th annual Marble Day, set for 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday throughout downtown Bonner Springs.

This year’s event will include longtime festival favorites such as the marble tournament, Wacky Parade and Running of the Pinkies fundraiser, in which thousands of pink rubber balls are dropped from a truck bed onto Oak Street in a race to the finish line. Ball sponsorships are available for $2 apiece, with all proceeds going to support the youth-orchestrated Allegro Choirs of Kansas City.

There will also be some new additions, Welicky said, including puppet shows and the event’s first-ever egg toss.

“People stand on each side of the street and you just toss a raw egg,” Welicky said in describing the activity.

There will be 300 eggs available for tossing in this first year, Welicky said, but the hope is to see the activity grow in the future and to ultimately nab a spot for Marble Day in Guinness World Records for the largest egg toss on the planet. It’s a lofty goal and may present some cleanup challenges afterward, Welicky admitted, so “we’re practicing this year to get the kinks out before we bring in the World people.”

Every year, the event receives a lot of support from city departments that include police and fire as well as parks and recreation, and this year will be no different, Welicky said.

“The whole community is really good about coming and putting it together for the kids, ’cause it’s really fun. The police department helps us with making sure the parade runs safely, the (National Agricultural Museum and Hall of Fame puts on) a nice, solid tractor parade,” Welicky said of some of the support the event receives each year. “People come out to volunteer for the games. … So it’s just a day to say, ‘We want summer, and let’s start.'”

The event is free to attend, and all of the activities are mainly free, too, Welicky said.

“The only thing you would need is money if you want to support the pinky ball run (as well as for food),” she said. “Everything else, you just get in line and just have some fun.”