KANOPOLIS — The Kanopolis Men’s Club received the Volunteer of the Year Award Saturday night in Kanopolis City Park to cap off the two days of food and fun known as Fort Harker Days.

“Being a small town, we all have to pitch in and help keep this town looking good,” said Mayor Anthony Hopkins.“We have got several groups that always help, but this year we’ve selected the Kanopolis Men’s Club.”

Hopkins said club members have helped with playground equipment and the shelterhouse roof in the city park, siding on the old legion building — now a community center — and stripes on Main Street. The club also collects trash along the low road between Kanopolis and Ellsworth and assisted with the recent Kanopolis Cleanup Days.

“We really appreciate everything they do,” Hopkins said. “They’re a great group of guys.”

Accepting the award on behalf of the club was member Russell “Rusty” Bunch.

“I think it’s well deserved,” Bunch said.“We work hard to try to improve Kanopolis. We have a lot of projects we take on. We donate money to worthy causes, what we can afford.”

A successful event

This year’s Fort Harker Festival — as in past years — was successful for several reasons.

“A lot of it is just the smalltown atmosphere where people get together and everybody kind of pitches in,” said Marty Sauers of Kanopolis, announcer of the Fort Harker Days parade.“It’s our volunteer spirit. It’s just a lot of fun. We try to make it to where it’s not real expensive, and it’s just kind of small-town fun. We try to have a lot of things for the kids. It’s just become a tradition. The (Fort Harker Days) Committee has a whole bunch of new people on it, younger people who have a whole bunch of different ideas and that’s a good thing. It’s good to see some of the younger citizens in town pitching in and starting to keep the tradition going.”

“We have a committee that is very cooperative and we try to include things that the whole family will enjoy,” said Fort Harker Days committee member Meredith Vargo of Kanopolis. “We start planning in February. We try to work out every detail that we can and just make sure that there are fun things and basically free things — everything would be free for those folks that want to attend the festivities.”

Vargo said the committee added a lot of new things this year and it will have more things next year.

She also credited a large number of volunteers for helping make the festival a success.

“It (Fort Harker Days) just has its own personality somehow,” she said.“It’s different than other celebrations we think — and we’re just very proud of it.”

“We have the Kanopolis Alumni which starts kicking it off with a social hour today and we’ve got so much history here in Kanopolis,” said Linnea Beebe of Kanopolis. “It brings a lot of people from outof-town just to see, because they don’t do an alumni in Ellsworth anymore. Kanopolis still has one going on. There are just a lot of activities. They’ve added several new things to the lineup this year.”

Beebe said Fort Harker Days takes a lot of volunteers to be a success.

“You’ve got the fire department who is always volunteering,” she said.“The rec committee has just gone crazy this year with so many new things. They put the Baby and Me swing in the park, they’ve got the volleyball, they take care of the Easter egg hunt, Halloween for the kids. It’s a community volunteer year-round.”

“I think all the people get together and they all come home, this is their hometown, and everybody has a good time,“said Shirley Deiser of Ellsworth.“I think it’s wonderful.”

“It’s just fun for all ages,” said Cherie Sauers of Kanopolis. “Everybody loves a parade. We’ve got some new young people on the Fort Harker Committee that are full of a whole lot more energy than I have. They’ve added softball, a mud run which is usually another weekend, they added to Fort Harker Days, the parade is always great. You can look up and down the street and see the turnout. Folk’s love Kanopolis as much as I do.”

Turtle races a favorite

Marty Sauers said his favorite parts of the festival are the turtle races and the parade.

“And the covered wagon races are really neat too,” he said. “It’s just small-town fun.”

“The turtle races are the highlight,” Vargo said. “We do a lot of things. And every year we add more events. But honestly, the turtle races are what people remember. And also free watermelon. It’s a big hit also.”

Beebe said her favorite part of Fort Harker Days is family.

“I’ve got probably 30-40 coming over for supper tonight and we’ll have them over for breakfast again in the morning.”

Deiser said her favorite parts of the festival are the food and the parade.

Cherie Sauers said her favorite part of the festival is the turtle races.

“For two months I collect turtles,” she said. “I get them so tame that I just have to hollar ‘here boys’ and they come and get the food. So today they get to go back into the wild.”