By Sean P. Ray | Managing Editor

*Editor’s note: This story was written before the passing of Gus Kalaris on June 28.

When the weather gets warm, there’s nothing better than an ice cold treat. But perhaps better than that is sharing your snack with someone else.

That feeling was captured in the winning entry of The Northside Chronicle’s Spring on the Northside Photo Contest. Titled “Sweeter Than the Iceball is Wanting to Share it with Gus,” the photo was submitted by Debbie Kutschbach of Brighton Heights, and depicts a child sharing a frozen treat with Gus Kalaris, the owner of the famous Gus & Yiayia’s ice ball stand.

In existence since 1934, Gus & Yiayia’s is a hallmark attraction on the Northside, serving up tasty snacks such as ice balls, peanuts and popcorn. The stand is truly a can’t miss part of spring and summer on the Northside, which perhaps is just the reason a photo featuring it won.

That’s not to say the competition wasn’t tough. The Chronicle received a total of 23 entries in the contest, making it our second most popular behind our Cutest Pet Photo Contest, which had 40 entries.

A big reason for the high number of entries is thanks to the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. A photography class from the guild submitted 17 out of the 24 entries. They even had a decent shot at winning, a Simon Hirsh’s entry from the guild came in second place for the contest, receiving 14.7% of vote.

Photo by Simon Hirsh

As a matter of fact, Hirsh was leading for much of the voting period, with Kutschbach pulling ahead on June 24, the second-to-last day of voting. She won with 26.5% of the vote.

It was truly a delight to see all of the photos we received for this latest contest. It was interesting to see the many different ways Northsiders tried to capture Spring on the Northside.

Congratulations to Kutschbach on the win! You certainly deserved it.

Now then, as always, it’s time to announce our next photo contest. This time, we’re moving away from the Northside, as the coming of summer means one thing: vacations.

Our next theme is Northsiders on Vacation! We want to see all the fun and exotic places our readers visit while taking days off of work this summer.

Whether it’s the beach, or another city, or even a foreign country, we want to see it all. This is your chance to show what cool and interesting sights you saw away from home.

As always, the contest is restricted to Northsiders or subscribers of The Chronicle. Photos should be submitted either via email, at editor@thenorthsidechronicle.com, or to our Instagram account, nschronicle.

Interested competitors should include their names, where they took the photo, an optional title for the photo and their Northside neighborhood (or if they’re a subscriber). There is a limit of one photo per entrant, so choose your vacation picture carefully.

The deadline for this contest is Sept. 18. Voting will begin on Sept. 19 and run through the end of day Sept 23.

Winners will receive certain bragging rights and their photo will be printed in the October issue.

So Northside, we hope you all have a great vacation, and be sure to share pictures of your trip with us. We can’t wait to see what you’ll send in.