Volunteers fuel festival success

The results of months of hard work could be seen all over Littleton last weekend. The streets filled with visitors who came to enjoy the family atmosphere of the 23rd Annual Littleton-Lake Gaston Festival sponsored by the Littleton Lions Club.

It all came together because of the many volunteers willing to give of their time and talents. Their reward for all their work is to help improve the town they love. The festival provides money to give back to local causes. 

Some of the volunteers are well known in the area. Other volunteers are area citizens who want to give back to the area. Then there are volunteers who are friends and relatives of people in the area.

The history of the festival is rich with people who have given of their time. Every aspect of the event has volunteer’s involved with it.  In 1985 when the first festival was organized volunteers Ann Hawfield, William Young and Quinton Quails were the leaders who took a vision and made it a reality. 

In 1994 the Stray Cats Car Show became part of the annual event. This has proven to be one of the festival favorites, even today. This year’s record breaking number of entries helped to bring one of the largest crowds ever to the event. 

In 2003 Carolyn Allen brought her talents in organizing the Lake Gaston chamber of Commerce Annual BBQ to the festival. Five years later it is another attraction that involves volunteers. This year’s judges came from all over the area including right in Littleton. The culinary judges were Lamar Van-Brackle, from Murfreesboro, Judge Rodney Elmore, with the Lake Gaston Chamber, and Judge George Evans from Como.

The showmanship judges were: Mrs. William T. Skinner, John Skinner and Mike Butts all from the Littleton area. Theresa Stansbury of Littleton helped in the tabulating of the judges results. 

Depending on when you were at the festival you could find volunteers helping out in all the areas where work had to be done. There was Michael Watson, Heidi Hogan and Fred Kneisel helping the vendors set up on Friday night.

One of the unique stories involving volunteers is Rosa Cooke. Rosa is the sister of Carolyn Allen. She and her husband, Berry, come to the festival each year. Rosa helps selling pounds of beef and collecting tickets. Berry entered his 1955 Chevy in the Stray Cats show where he place in the top 25 cars. The unique part of the story is that their anniversary is generally during the festival, but they volunteer to help the lions. 

Each year the festival provides a place for many of the areas volunteer organizations to showcase themselves.This year you could find The Lake Gaston Association, the Water Safety Council, Lake Gaston Piecemakers,and the Friends of the Library as well as many other civic and social groups. 

No mention of volunteers’ would be complete without recognizing the one who sponsor the annual festival, the Littleton Lions club.

The 2007 Littleton Lions Club members who helped make this years festival a success are Carolyn Allen, Sylvia Branch, Carol Daihi, Judith Forrest, Mark Forrest, Gordon Gray, Faye Hardee, Irvin Harris, Mason Hawfield, Sally Hawfield, Heidi Hogan, Matt Johnston, Jerry Jones, James King, Fred Kneisel, Bill Lamberson, Dan Long, Jo Masson, Joe Masson, Jack May, Karen Macrae, Patrick Macrae, Marvin Newsom, Betty Quails, Quinton Quails, Carlton Quails, Theron Sharber, Martha Sherman, Richard Sherman, Jim Sineath, Karen Sineath, Moria Underwood, Jack Underwood, Carol Warfel, Jay Warfei, and Robert Weathered.