By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD — Despite a mostly cloudy sky, more than 300 people came together in Marshfield Aug. 21 to watch the partial solar eclipse as Simplicity Credit Union held a viewing party at its branch on East Upham Street in Marshfield.

Director of Marketing Ben Bauer said Simplicity ordered 500 eclipse glasses for its branch locations in Marshfield and Plover — each location got 250 pairs — and both places quickly ran out.

“We really didn’t know what to expect as far as a turnout, but we were definitely surprised that we had people wrapped around the building waiting for the thing to start, so it was pretty cool to see the turnout,” Bauer said.

“It was probably June when we first officially started planning for an event of some sort,” he added. “We weren’t quite sure what we were going to do, but one thing that we knew we would want if we were doing anything outside would be the viewing glasses, so we ordered those probably in June and, luckily, they showed up right in the nick of time. We received them last Friday.

“They went very quick, but we were really lucky that we had a lot of people that were able to take it in.”

Joshua Gayle of Marshfield brought 10-year-old Gabby Gayle out to see the eclipse.

“(With the glasses on,) the sun sort of looked orange. It almost looked like a crescent moon like you would see at night. Only it’s daytime, and it is the sun,” said Joshua.

“It’s like a crescent moon. It is kind of like orangish-reddish color, but when you take off the glasses, it is, like, really bright,” Gabby added.