This weekend Deepwater proudly hosted its 120th Annual Labor Harvest Picnic! First held in 1902 this event has a long-standing history of being a family friendly community event to celebrate the abundance of late summer and allow rural neighbors to gather. Board treasurer Cheryl Powers had this to say, “This has definitely been a learning experience and one we can work on doing better and better as we go. With us being an all-new board for the Deepwater Labor Harvest Picnic, we all got to experience everything from the inside of the picnic... So many small details that you don’t see from the outside unless they are missing from the ‘normal’ set up. This was our 120th year of our annual picnic. We wanted to do our best to keep the tradition going. We did make some changes that some had a hard time with, and others thought were a good change. We did what we had with what time, funds, and knowledge we had available.”
Despite the learning curve the board and volunteers were able to put on a three-day event which kicked off Saturday morning with a baby show and scarecrow contest. Scout Troop 437 hosted a series of tournaments and royalty was crowned at 2 PM on the main stage. Sunday had a full slate of activities for kids and families including the car show and hog roast. Monday featured the parade, a fish fry fundraiser, and a kid’s carnival! All three days saw crowds as people returned home to celebrate 120 years of community and family.
Secretary Jennifer Greenwell discussed one of the major motivations for this year’s picnic, “Putting together a picnic in such a short amount of time and with a limited budget was not an easy task but well worth it. Our mission is to continue a tradition of family fun in a small town and having the chance to get together as a community. It was a great honor to dedicate this year’s picnic to our beloved former fire chief Kyle Foster as he will be greatly missed but never forgotten.” Many activities throughout the weekend helped raise funds for the fire department in Mr. Foster’s honor, and a biscuit breakfast to raise funds for a headstone.
Other fundraisers such as the vendor booths and silent auction directly supported the picnic funds and will be used to continue this 120-year-old tradition into 2023. President Torie Windsor discussed how the board worked together this year and what to expect coming up next year. “This year’s picnic was a learning experience for the four of us. The work that went into organizing the events, which included making sure we had enough items for a silent auction, games that took the place of a carnival for the kids so that they could enjoy the picnic, prizes for the kids and trying to make this picnic special took many hours of work, meetings, and conversations to work out some kinks. The board members did an awesome job with bringing all of this together in the very short period of time and very limited funds. We’ve already started on next year’s picnic and while understanding that change doesn’t always sit well with some... it will be a better picnic. I feel as the President of this board that we... meaning the board members and I, work very well together and have aspirations of making this picnic bigger and better but keeping it focused on the family and community!”
The board would like to thank all those that helped and came out to support the community this weekend. “We are so very thankful for each and every individual that helped in ANY way, from the smallest assists of moving chairs & emptying trash to donations of time, talent and/or treasure. We are each given talents that we can use to help with various events around us. I’ve always heard, “Many hands make light work.” The more endeavors like this I jump in to, the more I find that to be so true. Lots of individuals volunteering in various ways is how events like the Deepwater Labor Harvest Picnic happen and will continue to happen. Volunteering doesn’t always have to be a lot of hands-on work. It can be behind the scenes tasks, such as running errands for supplies, helping set up for events, helping clean up after events... the opportunities to be a part of something like this are truly endless! Each and every ounce of help is so appreciated by this board. We truly want to be a team working together to make a great, memorable event, especially for our children! They are the future! (Cheryl Powers, Treasurer)
If you would like the chance to help support the 2023 Deepwater Labor Harvest Picnic, be sure to come out September 20th when they screen Hocus Pocus on the big screen at the park! You can also follow their Facebook page at @DeepwaterLaborDayPicnic.
