LavacaBerry Festival, a Tremendous Success

By Jack James
The clouds parted from two days of rain and the beautiful blue sky welcomed the annual LavacaBerry Festival on Saturday, October 27 The Sebastian County Ballfield east of Lavaca on Featherhill Road was the perfect spot for it too!
Sponsored by the Lavaca Area Chamber of Commerce, somewhere around fifty vendors preregistered for booth spaces. Vendors selling homemade jewelry, furniture, jams and jellies, acrylic paintings, soaps and more, lined the three roads inside the area that surrounded the pavilion that is the concession stands for the ballfields. Food vendors set up behind the pavilion and sold BBQ, hamburgers and even gumbo and more to the many people who came to the festivities.

Raffles for a fresh LavacaBerry Cobbler and a homemade quilt were in the Chamber booth. Proceeds from the quilt will go to the Lavaca Senior Citizens Center. The drawing for the quilt will be held on November 20 at the center.
Local band and singers took the stage in one-hour shifts. The bands called Frog Bayou Boys, Wild Card, Common Thread and Craters in the Moon played as well as Soul Fire Ministry and the lovely and talented Brittany Morse sang as well. People brought their lawn chairs and enjoyed the day of good music.
Veteran’s groups set up drawing attention to the fact that 22 Veterans commit suicide every day from PTSD and other issues from fighting or coming home to problems. A veterans group set up a raffle to give a brand new motorcycle and the 9/11 Firetruck was on board to draw attention to the tragedy of the bombing of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and those who brought down the plane before it could do harm.
Young and old alike enjoyed a cakewalk provided by a group who were and are raising funds for a local girl and her family. She is a young teenager who just had open-heart surgery and the proceeds helped her family with the bills from surgery and missing work. They gave the best looking desserts as prizes too.
There were all kinds of games and activities for the kids to enjoy too! The pony rides, bounce arounds, carnival games giving prizes every time made the kids very happy and their parents too.
While this year’s festival is in the books, tired Chamber members are already whispering about the plans for next year. If it’s half as good as this year’s festival, it will be a great one!