Sean C. Morgan
Sportsman’s Holiday offered a wide variety of activities for starting with a garage sale and barbecue chicken and ending with the rodeo Sunday afternoon.
In between, Sweet Home hosted a dance following Friday night’s rodeo, breakfast at the Elks Lodge Saturday and Sunday morning, the Kiddee Karnival Saturday morning and afternoon, a variety of craft bazaars and sales, barbecue chicken with East Linn Christian Academy and fireworks.
The Kiddee Karnival was a hit for families before and after the parade in the Mollie’s parking lot. Volunteers and local businesses offered a variety of free entertainment for children. Insurance agents provided free fingerprinting for children, while others climbed, bounced and crawled through inflatable toys.
After enjoying the parade and all the candy passed out in a kind of early Halloween, Zachary and Dylan Dysinger waited patiently for a train ride that circled the parking lot.
The brothers enjoyed the caterpillar toy and the boxing ring, where children donned gigantic boxing gloves and bounced around. Dylan thought the dunk tank was pretty neat.
Brieanna Davis “rode on the octopus thing and the caterpillar and the slide,” she said. Her favorite was the caterpillar.
Meanwhile, the Dysingers’ train ride was cut short when a tire popped on the train.
With that out of the way, and the Kiddee Karnival winding down, the Dysingers were looking forward to the fireworks that night at Foster Lake.
“I wish I could light them,” Dylan said.
Children played games at one tent then went to another table where they could exchange the chips they won for a variety of toys. Across the parking lot, children tried on firefighter equipment and talked to paramedics. Nearby, other children waited to get their faces painted.
A petting zoo between Figaro’s Pizza and The New Era introduced children to an assortment of critters, and nearby Connie DeBusschere, who owns and operates Canine Companions, demonstrated dog agility and obedience to crowds of kids and their parents.
“I’ve been working with dogs for over 20 years,” DeBusschere said. Her career includes competing in dog agility shows, including the USDAA Animal Planet World Championship.
The children enjoyed watching the as she put her dog through the paces. They especially enjoyed watching dogs run through a tube and through her legs.
She has recently begun studying special behaviors, specializing in identifying the stimulants that lead to aggressive behavior.
Canine Companions is a local school for training dogs, with classes for adult dogs and puppies. For information, persons may call 467-7215.
“I thought it was great,” DeBusschere said of the Karnival. “It was good to see all the people and families out enjoying it. I plan to come back next year.”
“The kids are having a great time,” volunteer Sharon Pryor said as she handed out prizes. They really liked that the activities were all free. “Some guys tried to buy something from us, but you have to go and win.”
Sportsman’s Holiday used to have a carnival regularly, parade master Ozzie Shaw said. After the parade, families would visit the carnival for about an hour before heading to the Logger’s Olympics.
The carnival was resurrected last year with the Kiddee Karnival.
“This is nice to have the kids participate (in Sportsman’s Holiday),” Shaw said.
The Karnival was “excellent, a great variety with the games and the blow up things, whatever you call them, inflatable toys,” Pryor said.
“This is neat,” Steve Hanscam, who owns the parking lot, said. “These kids are having a blast. This has been the hot spot in town this morning hasn’t it?”
Down the road, people enjoyed lunch at Thriftway, where East Linn Christian Academy was barbecuing chicken in its annual fund-raising event.
East Linn has been doing the barbecue for about 25 years, and Mike Stitzell has been cooking the chicken for the better part of 20 years.
The barbecue was going well Saturday, with about 350 chickens sold Friday night. Shortly after the parade, East Linn had sold about 330 chicken lunches and expected to meet the private school’s goal of 1,000.
Right after the parade, “that line got long instantly,” Stitzell said. Proceeds are used at East Linn Christian Academy.
The East Linn Museum rummage sale went great, Gail Gregory said. “We’ve had a pretty good turnout yesterday and today both. It’s not quite as busy as last year. I think partly due to the fact we have less larger items.”
The proceeds are used to help operate the museum.
In both cases, leftover clothing or leftover chicken are donated to charities, like the HOPE Center, Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, the Nazarene church or Teen Challenge.
Across the road, in keeping with the fifties theme, Johnny Cash, the Everly Brothers and Elvis blared from a stereo at the VFW Hall where the veterans were hold their first Christmas in July bazaar.
He didn’t know how many persons had come through, but “it looks like we’re going to do it again next year,” organizer Doug Gibson said.
Joe Persinger was busy blowing up balloons for younger children.
“It’s exciting,” Persinger said of the holiday events. “Sweet Home’s a lot like this ? Something’s always going on that’s exciting.”
The VFW raffled off a $100 grill donated by Wal-Mart, a TV-VCR combination donated by RentaCenter and two one-day tickets to the Oregon Jamboree at the end of the month.
The money is used in VFW and veterans programs, Gibson said. It also gets turned back to the community each year when the veterans give to community programs, like the Boys and Girls Club and Senior Center.