|
|
Poultry Days A Success
The 69th annual Poultry Days was one for the history books. First
the festival rescheduled to August, then it moved to Heritage Park and
lastly in response to last minute state restrictions the social portion
of the festival was cancelled. All that with masks and social
distancing. While the festival lacked many of the things that
people come to expect of poultry days the community enjoyed a beautiful
weekend.
Grace Carman of Versailles was crowned as the 69th Miss Chick.
Grace is the daughter of Amy and Rob Carman and was sponsored by Towne
& Country Players. The first runner up is Miss Reganne
O’Connor from Ansonia. Reganne is the daughter of Norma and
Jacoby Highley & Patrick and Melissa O’Conner and sponsored by
Genesis 4-H. Second runner up is Miss Hannah Schmitz of Marion
Local. Hannah is the daughter of Randy and Kathy Schmitz and was
sponsored by the Barbara Rethlake Dance Studio. This is the first
time in recent history that ladies from three different schools took
the top places. The pageant was sponsored by the Versailles
Savings & Loan and conducted with social distancing. It was
great to see the friendship and competition from the eleven
contestants. A big thanks to Amanda Borchers and, Madelyn Bartsch
for organizing the pageant along with the judges, and Cassidy Albers
for broadcasting both pageants.
The Little Miss Poultry Days pageant involved 15 young ladies from the
area and was sponsored by US Bank. The smaller number of
contestants enabled social distancing but the competition was just as
lively. Sophia Hecht was crowned 2020 Little Miss Poultry
Days. Sophia is from Versailles and the daughter of Chris and
Kimberly Hecht. First runner-up is Vivian Huwer from St. Henry
and daughter of Jason and Katie Huwer. Second runner-up is Ellen
Gonya, daughter of Cory and Allison Gonya of Versailles.
Congratulations to these young ladies and pageant organizers and judges
for continuing this tradition for the 36th year.
The committee continued as many traditions as possible and innovated on
others. The Grand Parade was held with a single unit…the Giant
Chicken with the 2019 Miss Chicks and the 2020 Little Miss Poultry Days
court. While impromptu the parade may be the only parade in Darke
county. The festival experimented with live broadcasts of the
Miss Chick and Little Miss Poultry Days pageants, Grand Parade and live
updates from Gary Huelskamp. While these efforts had opportunity
for improvement, they succeeded in reaching friends and family who were
not able to attend.
Chicken Sales were simply overwhelming. Disruptions to food
production made placing the normal chicken order challenging and demand
was uncertain. The governors mask further complicated planning
when it occurred barely two weeks before the festival. After the
committee was forced to cancel the social portion of the festival bulk
coolers sales exploded and eventually reached nearly 11,000
halves. After the first day of the festival it was clear we would
be overwhelmed. The committee sent a semi to purchase as much
additional chicken as possible Friday night.
Total sales were an impressive 21,850 halves…. And that was without a
full festival! While a new record of 29,000 was set last year
estimates for what we could have sold this year go as high as
35,000. Regardless, it was clear there wasn’t enough chicken or
cookers and the resulting traffic back-up created problems on Main
Street. The board deeply apologizes to everyone who braved
the long lines or was caught in traffic. We are even more
apologetic to our first-time visitors and those who were not able to
purchase chicken.
Despite the challenges there was unwavering community support resulting
in a successful festival. While sitting up to three hours in line
isn’t the optimal experience it illustrates the demand for that World
Famous Chicken and the level of support the festival enjoys.
Weekend sales increased the total number of dinners sold since 1952 to
1,066,185.
The 2020 Festival Board was led by Luke Subler. As the festival’s
first “Pandemic Chairman”, Luke along with the Vice Chairmen Brent
Pepple, Matt Poeppelman, Dereck Smith and Vince Serraino weathered a
particularly stressful year. This group navigated a myriad of
decisions and challenges. The chairmen set and accomplished their
goal of funding Heritage Park for the next year. As a part of
this pact the chairmen ended the weekend by jumping into the Heritage
Park pond to celebrate the success.
The committee shares their support for all the festivals and events
that weren’t able to happen this summer or were significantly scaled
back. The Great Darke County Fair, Liberty Days, Country Fest,
Minster Oktoberfest, Bremen Fest, Fort Recovery Jubilee, St Henry
Picnic, Troy Strawberry Festival, German Heritage Fest and many
more. Behind the scenes we connected with many of these groups,
felt their disappointment and shared their stress. While this
year drained energy we also hope it provides opportunity for bigger and
better. The board looks forward to visiting your events in 2021.
Planning has already begun for the next festival including filling open
board positions and exploring new ideas. Ideas originally planned
for this year can be refined and new ideas developed. The
70th annual Versailles Poultry Days is planned for June 11-13th,
2021. This will include inviting all past Little Miss Poultry
Days, Miss Chicks and Festival Chairmen to participate in the Grand
Parade on June 12, 2020. Please follow us on Facebook and
Instagram for updates. Established in 1952 and supporting summer
fun for 69 years.
|
|
|
|
|
