City’s Funfest is back, will take place Sept. 6
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It’s been too long since the community gathered like this. We’ve missed the joy it brings to our community. It isn’t just a festival, it’s a homecoming for our town.
— BEV WELU “It feels so good to bring our festival back to life,” Bev said. “It’s been too long since the community gathered like this. We’ve missed the joy it brings to our community. It isn’t just a festival, it’s a homecoming for our town. It’s been too long since our community gathered like this.”
Essentially, Bev said, the tradition was deeply missed by many. She, along with others, felt the need to bring to town a day for fun and celebration.
And if you can’t have fun in Milroy that day, you’re just not trying. There will be a Fireman’s Cook Out starting at 11 a.m., and the Oasis Bar & Grill will complement that by serving root beer floats. Mr. Zooman will entertain at 11 a.m. as well, which is also when the petting zoo opens.
The car/tractor show will begin at 1 p.m. with the first 20 car or tractor owners receiving a free tote bag. The show will go on for three hours, well after the parade begins at 1 p.m.
At 2 p.m., Hope Welu will offer live music; Also at 2 p.m., bingo will begin at the Lions Club building; 4-Hers will serve nachos, chips and taco boats; Mr. Twister the Balloon Guy will be on hand for the kids; and for the adults, Wings Axe Company will open its axe throwing area.
The Legion Pork Barbecue in the community center will begin at 4 p.m. before registration for the pedal pull, with the event beginning at 6 p.m..
The big day will be capped off by the band Broken Oak, which will take the stage at 7 p.m. at the Oasis.
“Milroy is a small community, but we can attract people to our small town,” Bev said. “We have a very loving, family-oriented community and we want people to know that we’re still here, we’re still on the map. We have a very young community, and we want people to come and enjoy themselves. Were more than a baseball team, an elevator and a couple churches.”
Going on all day (11 a.m.6 p.m.) will be kids’ train rides, inflatables, ice cream treats, tic-tac-toe water splash, sidewalk chalk art, the beer tent, knocker ball and face painting. The Gaga pit will also be open all day. A Gaga pit is a specialized enclosure used for playing Gaga Ball, a game similar to dodgeball but played in a pit.
More than 35 sponsors have chipped in to make the event go. Planning started back in April, Bev said, when Melvin and Scot Bowman met to come up a plan to make it happen. It started out pretty small, but as the conversation went on, it got bigger and bigger.
“I jumped on board and said, ‘Hey, if you want to do this, we’re gonna do it up right,” Bev said.
From there, a committee was formed, as more and more people followed Bev’s lead, knowing that Funfest was a great idea. Committee members joining her include Duscher, Bowman, Luverne and Peggy Sik, and Sonia Schmiesing-Meyer.
But, Bev, said, this is just the beginning.
“Next year, we want to build on it,” she said. “We’re gonna keep bringing it back year after year, because in two years we have our 125th celebration. We want to bring it back now so we can build it up for a couple years so two years from now people will know what we have. We want to add something to it every year.”
Bev added that the committee plans on doing some major fundraising in the coming months so be able to afford adding to the event and making it bigger every summer.
“We’re just proud of our little town,” Bev said.
