Before I began working at the newspaper I rarely went to the community festivals and celebrations but one of the perks of this job is to be at all the events just so I do not miss a news story.
Over the last few years I have gotten excited about the many fairs and festivals that we cover and planned my schedule around each of them.
This year was no exception and I must say when the mayor made the announcement that there would be no Ice Cream Festival this year I was just a little disappointed.
The first thing I did that next morning was tell my boss. To my surprise and delight he got right on the phone with the mayor and his bosses and asked how we, as a newspaper, could help keep the long-running festival a part of the community.
This city has lost enough in the last few years and the thought of loosing an event like that was unsettling.
Within a week Ken Roberts had been contacted and ideas began to be tossed around about ways to at least keep the fireworks celebration going. But the Ice Cream Festival was not completely dead yet and we all hoped it would go on as scheduled.
Two weeks after the mayor announced he thought the festival was dead it became official and plans for the 2009 Leitchfield Freedom Fest were announced and the Leitchfield community, our community, began to step up and offer support.
I was so proud of our Leitchfield Lions club when they voted not only to finance the cost of the inflatable city but the members voted to offer it to the children of the community at no cost. Craig Embry told a story about watching a family with small children tell them they could not afford the cost of the tickets to ride the carnival rides last year and these children did not get to participate in the rides. So it was decided the Inflatable city would be paid for and manned by the members of the Lions club free to elementary school age children.
Then other group jumped on board and very quickly we had a beauty pageant, a car show, a 5K run and a loud stereo contest all sponsored by different groups.
Then the different businesses began to offer the much needed financial support. I was so amazed by the different businesses that offered money and other ways to support the Freedom Fest and more than anything I was amazed at the way Ken Roberts kept everything organized and delegated jobs to different people so this event could grow and grow.
He had a vision and the people of this community took his vision and ran with it and now we are going to have a fantastic celebration this weekend.
All along he talked about a three-day event and I listened but I must admit I had my doubts about the third day.
I have never seen what is scheduled to take place on Sunday happen anywhere. Ken found a way to put God right in the middle of the entire celebration and I believe that is why this whole thing is working the way it should.
When I listened to him speak, with a tear in his eye, to the Lions Club and tell about his plans for the Freedom Through Praise Event I was impressed with the idea.
I knew the events planned for the other two days could be pulled off and would be successful, but to ask a church to give up the traditional Sunday service and come together with other churches was not something I thought would happen. But it is and it is going to be as big as any of the rest of the celebrations.
So when you take your exhausted child home after the fireworks on Saturday night make plans to cook your Sunday morning family breakfast and then bring your lawn chairs out for a praise and worship service unlike any that has taken place on our football field before.
Just come on out and look around and thank God for the many blessings that we share by living in a city like Leitchfield.
Bring a covered dish and share your dish with the community as you enjoy the food brought by others, just like a good old fashion homecoming. I will be there.
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