A large United States flag flies in overcast skies over the second annual Remember When Day. (MNJ Photo/Juliana Walker)
SPRUCE PINE — After being rescheduled in early October due to poor weather conditions, Remember When Day returned for its second year on Saturday, Oct. 31.
The festival, which was held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Parkway Fairgrounds in Grassy Creek, was dedicated to “preserving local heritage and honoring local heroes,” according to Event Coordinator Martha Huskins.
“We wanted to do something to preserve our local heritage, which of course is deeply rooted in farming and agriculture,” Huskins said. ”We partnered with the Firefighters Association because they thought this would be a great way for them to raise funds and awareness about fire safety and who they are as a local body of people who want to protect the community.”
The event, which was put on by the Mitchell County Firefighters Association and the Tractor Boys Heritage Club, had antique farm equipment and vehicles on display, local craft and retail vendors, a tractor train for kids and live music for festival attendees to enjoy.
Casey Robinson, a vendor at the festival who was selling homemade earrings, shelves, signs and T-shirts, said she was happy to support the Firefighters Association.
“I love doing festivals, and this festival is for a great cause,” Robinson said. “Firefighters are so important and if we didn’t have them, things would be really bad, so it’s good to be here supporting them.”
Huskins said each year they have the festival, they plan to pick a local hero to dedicate the festival to. This year’s festival was dedicated to the memory of the late Benny Young and last year’s was dedicated to Calvin Hall.
The event had COVID-19 precautions in place, including distance between vendors and hand-washing stations. Face coverings were encouraged but not required.
Huskins said they chose not to cancel their event because it was outside, the state is in phase three of reopening and they wanted to give locals something to do.
“We just really felt like the fact that it’s outside would give us a great advantage over the virus and allow us to more safely participate in a large gathering” she said. “Also, with almost everything else being canceled this year we wanted, if at all possible, to give people the opportunity to get out and enjoy a little bit of 2020 before it’s over.”
The free event was a fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the Mitchell County Firefighters Association, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting fire departments in Mitchell County.