Box Car Days. Aebleskiver Days. Boxelder Bug Days. Summerfest. Hot Iron Days.
Watermelon Days. Sounds of Summer.
These are all tried-and-true, very traditional celebrations that area folks have long looked forward to every summer. But there are two other small towns that should be added to the list: Milroy and Walnut Grove, and this past Saturday belonged all to them.
Milroy’s Funfest, brought back a year ago after a long hiatus, got going early Saturday with a 5K Color Run and continued through the day with things like a climbing wall, the Zoo Man, a volleyball tournament, car show, petting zoo, axe throwing and a pedal pull, ending with a live band at night.
“It’s incredible,” said Bev Welu, whose late husband, Melvin, instigated the return of Funfest before his untimely death on July 16, 2025, the result of a farm accident in rural Milroy. “Our community was here early in the morning to start setting up — volunteers came in just to help us set up … never had to ask them.” Word spread all over after last year’s Funfest, as people from as far away as Ivanhoe visited Milroy for the festivities.
“People said they really, really liked it last year — that’s how we grown,” said Welu. “It’s so wonderful — we’re all excited to have this in Milroy. Usually, you come to Milroy, it’s just a regular Milroy day … one day out of the year, we all come together and support each other.”
Welu continues to be taken aback by all the volunteer help and for the donations they have received, not just for Funfest, but for the city’s 125th celebration in 2027.
“People love small towns,” she said.
Later in the day and a little to the south and east, the festivities got going in Walnut Grove for the second annual Walnut Grove Firehouse Festival, a free-will fundraiser for the Walnut Grove Relief Association.
Walnut Grove Fire Chief Andy Foster said it’s OK if the city is known for the “Fragments of a Dream” Pageant that takes place every July, but he and his fellow firefighters want Walnut to be more than that. And more than that, they want something the children in the area can grasp onto.
“Everybody knows about the pageant, but there’s never been anything else in town for us,” said Foster. “Street dances have never worked … in my head, it was, we need to do activities for the kids; kids love all this stuff.”
The Firehouse Festival is designed for the kids, but they didn’t forget about the grownups, either, as a live band capped off the night. The 27 firefighters that make up the department are proud they have found a way to fit all the fun into a single day.
“We jam it all into one day — everybody has fun and it doesn’t take up the whole weekend,” said Foster. “I got the guys to buy in on it last year and it worked; we got a good group of guys.”
Kids enjoyed an obstacle course that had them emulate exercises firefighters would do such as crawling through tight spaces and shooting water from a hose. There was also bean bags and an outdoor golf simulator. Firefighter Dave Hemp dee-jayed throughout the afternoon as well.
