Potato preparations

School children, organizers prepare for Basin festival

By TY BEAVER
H&N Staff Writer

October 16, 2007

MERRILL — With one day left before vendors and visitors arrive, preparations are picking up for the 70th annual Klamath Basin Potato Festival.

Parade participants are practicing their routines and officials are readying the football field behind the Merrill Civic Center for a slew of football games.

 “I’m being pulled all different ways,” said Janine Fairfield, coordinator of the festival’s queens program and fourth-grade teacher at Merrill Elementary School .

Many of the events and features of past festivals will be available this year on a larger scale, said Deena Dexter, lead organizer and president of the Merrill Lions Club.

Organizers have worked to bring the festival back to the level it was years ago when it drew visitors from the Klamath Basin and elsewhere. Dexter said this year’s festival would be successful in large part because of  progress made in the last two years.

Fairfield said he expects the opening banquet and talent show for the queen candidates to set new standards after seeing practices for the talent show.

Merrill Elementary students also are gearing up for the festival.

Volunteers from the fourth- through sixth-grade will play recorders while marching in Sunday’s parade. Students in Fairfield ’s class spent Tuesday making masks to display at the festival.

Dexter said one of the biggest boosts to this year’s event is the return of the Spud Bowl, with Lost River High School playing its homecoming game against St. Mary’s.

A high school football game was a highlight of past festivals, but hasn’t happened for about a decade. Preparing the football field behind the Merrill Civic Center was a critical aspect of bringing the game back.

Its return will bring more people to the festival, creating more visibility for exhibitors and vendors.

Other features and events also will draw visitors, from the annual Spud Run to a newer tradition — a horseshoe-tossing tournament with $175 in prizes.

Dexter said the festival will continue to grow and improve, building upon each years’ success.

“By sheer will, it’s going to be great,” she said. 

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Source: http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2007/10/17

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