By: Bill O’Connell
Given all the rain that fell this spring, keeping many corn growers in the area from planting their fields, it was not surprising that Mother Nature would drop a little more of the wet stuff on this year’s Swanton Corn Festival. But it was not enough to put much of a damper on all the great activities that were put together by the hard-working Corn Fest Committee as people from all around Northwest Ohio enjoyed another wonderful celebration with this year’s theme being “Harvest Moon” in honor of the 50-year anniversary of the first moon landing.
The hundreds of hours put in by the long-time core volunteers Pam Kazmierczak, Monique Gombash, Alan Robasser and Bob Wertz and dozens of other unpaid helpers were paid off by a huge turnout for the downtown parade and activities at Memorial Park that included games, the Pharaohs Car Show, live musical entertainment from noon until just before midnight and, of course, great festival food starting with the traditional chicken dinners.
New this year was a Battle of the Bands competition which was won by Stirred Not Shaken from Maumee closely edging out Rock Tonic Toledo, Rukus and the Shifferly Road Band.
Also new was a Swanton Trivia Contest that pitted a team headed by Mayor Ann Roth and another team led by Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Neil Toeppe. Team Toeppe, which included life-long Swanton residents Mona McNeill Dyke and Dave Pilliod, came out on top. Ironically, Ms. Roth and Mr. Toeppe will meet again in this year’s November election where both will appear on the ballot for the office of Mayor of Swanton.
As always, the Corn Fest Committee will meet in a couple of weeks to discuss this year’s event and start to plan for the 2020 celebration. There is a concern, however, voiced by Ms. Kazmierczak, regarding the long-term future of the festival. “The average age of the committee members is probably fifty-something. Our biggest fear is that there is not going to be people to step up and take over for us,” she said.
“We need to get some younger blood in to start taking over and doing what we’re doing. “I’ve been doing this for 23 years and a lot of others have been doing this for many years. We need some people to come in and be part of it and eventually take over so it keeps going.” Hopefully, the next generation (read millennials) will listen to Ms. Kazmierczak’s call to action.
Bill can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com