Article Body
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 26, 2014
CONTACT: Tony Venhuizen or Kelsey Pritchard at 605-773-3212
More Towns Plan Statehood Celebration
Events, Activities And Projects
PIERRE, S.D. – Six more statehood celebration committees will be promoting state and local history with events and activities during South Dakota’s 125th birthday year.
New local committees have organized in Willow Lake, Delmont, Iroquois, Wilmot, Castlewood and Yankton.
“There are many great family oriented activities being planned. I invite more towns to create a celebration day or add a history theme to a current annual event, ” said Gov. Dennis Daugaard.
Willow Lake’s Fourth of July celebration will promote South Dakota’s 125th birthday with history-themed parade floats and a special float for the area’s oldest citizens. Fourth-graders will display a wax museum of South Dakota history. There will also be an old-fashioned ice cream making contest, a bean bag tournament, a road race, displays at the Willow Lake museum, dedication of the Willow Lake Lions Memorial Park and fabulous fireworks. Funds raised will be used to improve the concession stand and restrooms at the football field.
In Delmont, the Fourth of July will be a fun-filled kids’ day with a bike safety rodeo, children’s identification kit program, bike races, foot races, water games and free watermelon. On Sept. 13–14, the town will hold the Kuchen Festival and the Harvest Festival with a parade, live music, kids pedal pull, a craft show, quilt show, art show, German luncheon, South Dakota’s Old Time Fiddlers, tractor games and a 125th statehood birthday tree planting. Other events include old farm equipment demonstrations, tractor pull, pancake breakfast, the burying of a time capsule and the honoring of all 125-year-old farms in the area. On Dec. 31, Delmont will host South Dakota’s only New Year’s Eve afternoon parade and a chili cook-off.
On July 18, the Iroquois Statehood Celebration Committee is sponsoring a picnic in Woodall Park with a band and a wellness walk. There will also be a parade, children’s face painting, crafts, softball and bean bag games, and an evening dance. Several class reunions will be held as well. On July 19, there will be a pancake breakfast, mud ATVs, a community grill-out and tractor parade.
On July 26–28, Wilmot will have a 125th statehood birthday theme for the town’s annual Harvest Fest. Activities will include a summer dinner theater, parade, rodeo, 5K Run/Walk, Wilmot’s Amazing Race, softball tournament, street dance, fireman’s supper, fireworks display, pancake breakfast, kiddie tractor pull, kids’ games, pie and ice cream social, rummage sales, scarecrow contest, farmers’ market, bean bag tournament, nondenominational worship service and Lee Township schoolhouse tours. Money raised will be used for new playground equipment.
At Castlewood Days, Aug. 8–10, a re-enactor will present South Dakota history at the Castlewood Museum. Other activities include a 5K run, mud drags, co-ed softball, kids pedal tractor pull, inflatables, a parade, and laser tag. More information is available at www.castlewoodcity.com.
In Yankton on Sept. 3, the local celebration committee is hosting the “Biggest Barn Dance in Dakota Territory” to kick off the 125th Celebration Wagon Train leaving Yankton for Pierre the next morning.
The barn dance will be on the rodeo grounds of the Human Services Center site. There will also be tours of the Mead Museum at the site. Any funds raised will be used to renovate the Mead Museum so it can display the history of Dakota Territory, Yankton and Yankton County.
Over the next two weeks, several communities are holding annual festivals with history themes, such as Freeman on July 27–28, Lake Norden on July 3 and Ethan, Delmont and Willow Lake on July 4.
Information about creating a local committee is available at 125.sd.gov under the “Celebration Communities” tab.
-30-