Despite River Fog cancellation, still lots to do this weekend

Unfortunately, this coming weekend’s River Fog Festival in downtown Williamsburg has been cancelled due to high COVID-19 rates in Whitley County.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Fortunately, there is still a few things to do this weekend locally although admittedly each might not appeal to everyone.

For our local farmers, the Whitley County Cooperative Extension Service is holding the Whitley County Farm Field Day Friday at the Whitley County Fairgrounds, which are located at 860 Savoy-Clear Creek Road in Williamsburg.

The program will start at 9 a.m. and feature programs on working dogs, shared use equipment demonstrations, horses and farm safety.

This is a revival of sorts of a program that the extension office used to do for local farmers about 20-25 years ago. Back then it often involved traveling to two or three different farms for demonstrations of different farming methods or use of different fertilizers, immunization methods for farm animals, and that sort of thing. In those days a lot of it revolved around tobacco, which was the areas number one “official” cash crop…LOL.

The last year that I remember it being held was the time they did it all at Dr. Michael Culver’s farm in Tackett Creek, but my memory may be off on that one.

On Saturday morning, there will be a walk for a very good cause in downtown Corbin.

The Southeast Kentucky Walk to End Alzheimer’s will take place starting at 10 a.m. in Sanders Park.

The purpose of the walk is to increase awareness about Alzheimer’s Disease, and its goal is to raise $34,000, which will go into research, care and support for Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers in our community.

Organizers are hoping for 150 participants.

Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. More than five million Americans and 75,000 Kentuckians are living with Alzheimer’s. Studies show that one in three seniors will die of Alzheimer’s or another dementia, which is more deaths that breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

There are 16 million Americans providing care for people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

There is also a third event that I want to talk about for this coming weekend.

Exactly 10 years ago this Friday, Goldbug Volunteer Fire Department became operational, and opened its doors for the first time.

The fire department was created to replace Three-Point Volunteer Fire Department, which had closed, and created quite a void in Whitley County in an area that is one of the central most in the county.

Other fire departments, particularly the volunteer departments, helped cover the fire territory as best they could, but it is a pretty large area.

Initially, the name of the new fire department was going to be Whitley County Fire Department, which didn’t sit all that well with some of the other local fire departments in Whitley County.

The new department then settled upon the name Goldbug Volunteer Fire Department, which surprisingly had never been used before.

On Saturday from 5 – 8 p.m. there will be a barbeque fundraiser held at Goldbug Volunteer Fire Department. Dinners complete with barbeque pork, baked beans and potato salad will be sold for $6 per plate with the proceeds going to benefit the fire department.

I would encourage people to stop by the fire department, which is located off Ky. 26 near Three-Point, and have dinner or to make a donation.

All of our local fire departments deal with a lot, and the volunteer departments, which is the majority of them, get little direct government funding. Our volunteer firefighters also don’t get paid to put out fires, free people trapped in vehicles, do traffic control at accident scenes or help ambulance crews lift heavy patients, which is a very common request.

When you see any of them out fundraising, please try to help out. They provide an invaluable service for our community, and get little thanks for their effort.