A week ago Farm-City Days was on life support. Tuesday night new life was pumped into the Iola tradition as citizens turned out to show support, share ideas and sign up to volunteer for this year’s festival.
In terms of attendance for the meeting, the organizing committee wasn’t sure what to expect.
“We had no expectations coming into this,” Ashlee Mathews, Farm-City Days organizer, said. “We were just hoping the community would show they cared about the festival.”
An outpouring of more than 25 responded to the committee’s plea of support.
Events such as the car show, carnival and parade were discussed with modifications to many of them on the table. Suggestions such as extending the length of the parade route were hot topics that went around the room.
Many in attendance also made suggestions for new events such as street dance, karaoke and bike races to help draw in Iola youth.
Improving town coordination was another topic of discussion. With surrounding communities hosting festivals in nearby towns, making sure a day is available where Iola could attract people from nearby towns was an issue.
“We need to be in contact with Chanute, Yates Center and even places like Colony to make sure we aren’t going up against them,” Dan Oswalt, owner of Sonic Drive-In restaurant in Iola said. “We need to maybe even reach out to those communities and talk to them about seeing if some of their people can come help with our event and then maybe we could go help with theirs. We need to be working together to help each other out in the area. One hand helping the other is what it’s all about.”
Oswalt also said he would like to see more civic organizations get interested in helping. While organizations like the Girl Scouts have been involved in helping with community projects like clean up in the past, Gilbert pushed to get other groups such as Rotary and Lions involved.
“Most of these groups, if you donate a small amount of money to their organizations, then they’ll be there for you when you need it,” Oswalt said. “These groups can be a huge difference in the success of an event like this.”
Oswalt also emphasized the need for publicity of the event. He, along with others in attendance, called for hanging out banners advertising the event sooner in the year. Another idea that seemed to gain traction was advertising more extensively in nearby communities like Chanute and Yates Center.
Getting community businesses involved was another area of agreement for attendees. Several in the audience said they would like to see more businesses involved directly in the parade — something that used to be a part of the festival which has fallen by the wayside.
Despite all the ideas, the most needed component is manpower.
“We have a lot of people with great ideas but we always come back to needing the bodies to make it happen,” Marty Meadows, Farm-City Days organizer, said. “So getting these people to show up like this is a great first step. Several people who were here said they knew people who couldn’t make the meeting tonight that were interested in helping, so I think we are doing well at this stage.”
For those who did sign up, the opportunity to be a part of the festival was something that, in most cases, was simply a way to give back to the community they have lived in for a long time.
“We’ve lived in this community for more than 20 years,” Lesa Cole, newly minted Farm-City Days volunteer said. “I would really hate to see Farm-City Days end because it’s a fun thing. It’s so important to help bring the community together. That’s why my family and I are here.”
