Sean C. Morgan
The 12th annual Sweet Home Arts and Crafts Festival held during Oregon Jamboree weekend was a success this year, according to Arlene Paschen, who coordinated newly added performing arts and entertainment.
The Arts and Crafts Festival is used to raise funds for the community’s Beautification Committee. Paschen said she didn’t yet know how much money the festival made, but she said she believes it was a successful weekend.
“We had 53-plus booths this year, and I think we had quality merchandise this year, with new vendors,” Paschen said. “I feel as if we were busy enough. We could always be busier.
“We tried the entertainment, which was a good thing. People seemed to enjoy it.”
Last year, the Elite Performance Academy cheer squad performed during the festival, Paschen said. It was a sort of kickoff to entertainment during the festival, and it was well received.
The idea was “let’s try to get the community involved in something that’s not going to cost them anything,” Paschen said.
While the cheer team had disbanded and couldn’t perform this year, the festival featured numerous musicians, the Sweet Home High School Huskiettes dance team and several other dance troops, Rich Little with a family presentation on insects, karaoke performer Brandi Vinson, children’s story time with Dr. Seuss, Smokey Bear and children’s singalong time with Judy Stevens.
Maverick Duante led a church service Sunday morning on the “Color of Friendship and Unity.”
“Maverick Duante did a very, very nice service,” Paschen said. He was well-received. “If we all tried to live by what he suggested, we wouldn’t have any troubles.”
The festival had other additions and changes too.
The Fry Nursery sold flowers at the festival, adding to the ambiance, Paschen said. “It was fun to chat with people about the flowers.”
The festival featured a new layout, providing more room to walk and better air circulation, Paschen said. It added new food vendors across the site, located along the front of Sweet Home High School and in the courtyard next to the auditorium.
The organizers added tables and umbrellas where “Dad” could sit while “Mom” shopped, couples could take a break while enjoying food from a vendor or folks could just sit and visit.
Paschen stressed the importance of the festival for the Beautification Committee’s work, which includes most of the flowers and landscaping in the public rights of way along highways 20 and 228. The committee keeps up the median strip, flowerbeds along Highway 20 and flowerbeds at the city limits.
Committee members are working on taking over the veterans memorial in front of Hoy’s Hardware.
The committee purchases flowers for the beds, and it must pay for weed prevention. Sometimes it doesn’t have enough volunteers and must hire someone to complete certain tasks, Paschen said, but it really cannot afford to hire people. People steal baskets and vandalize the flowerbeds. The committee must take care of those problems too.
The program costs roughly $8,000 to run each year, Paschen said, and it could use more cash donations and volunteers.
The committee has been assisted by the Key Club and East Linn Christian Academy students in the past.
The Beautification Committee is about keeping Sweet Home beautiful, said Paschen, a five-year volunteer. Sweet Home is already beautiful, but it takes work to keep it that way.
She expressed appreciation for the 49 sponsors who donated $50 to $250 to the festival, Paschen said. “Yes, we do have a great town to be proud of.”
The Beautification Committee is now moving on to “Home Sweet Home for Christmas,” working with artists and sponsors to prepare the giant greeting cards that surrounded the East Linn Museum and Beth Lambert State Farm Insurance in December.
For more information about the committee or festival, to donate or to volunteer, contact Paschen at (541) 367-9100.