Chamber Chimes

With the Watonga Cheese Festival just weeks away, it is time to plan our Annual Town Clean Up.  Every once in awhile, we all need to do some straightening in our own lives, and our community is no different.  And just as you make sure your house is especially nice before company comes, we like to do the same for the visitors that will be coming for the Festival.  The clean-up will be Saturday, October 2nd and we will start at 8:30 on the north side of City Hall.  We are usually done by about noon, when volunteers will be served a barbeque lunch, courtesy of Watonga Main Street, our partners in this project.  We welcome families, church groups, scouts or whomever to come out and help make our city something to be proud of.  .

Any groups (or individuals) wanting to participate can also do so ahead of time by contacting the office (623-5452) and getting assignment of a territory.  Please give us a call if you have any questions, we really appreciate all the help we can get.

On the topic of volunteers, I can not emphasize enough just how appreciative we are to all those who have agreed to help with the Festival in one way or another.  We have had many offers to help with ticket booths or cheese tasting and we are so very grateful for them.  We do still have openings for those locations and would love to hear from you if you have a few hours that you would be willing to offer.  Every little bit helps immensely!

Have you been in to The Plant Place yet to check out their "Watonga Cheese" setup?  It is really nice and they have a great selection of cheeses - flavors that you will remember if you ever used to get cheese from the Watonga Cheese Factory.  They will ship and will do gift baskets with the cheese, so you might stop in and familiarize yourself with it for future reference, if nothing else.  Watonga Cheese will also be available at the Cheese Festival this year, again being sold as a fund raiser by our local Kiwanis group, and will be featured on the Cheese Tasting Line.  Maybe you could get one of those great flavored cheeses and come up with a new and unique recipe to enter in the Cheese Food Contest.  Anyone up for that challenge?

The Watonga Cheese Festival is coming together to be a really fabulous event again this year.  As I told you last time, Watonga Cheese will be back this year and the Kiwanis will have many varieties for your purchasing options.  As usual, the cheese sales will be at the Armory, as well as at the Cheese Tasting Line.  The vendor applications are coming in and not only are we having quite a few returning vendors but we have had many new ones that sound like they will have interesting products.  We have been doing a lot of mailing to the Made In Oklahoma lists and hope to increase the representation in this area, as well. 

The Entertainment Committee has been making a lot of connections to new and exciting acts for this year but will also include a lot of old favorites.  The (formerly) local boys of Speedy and the Runaways, along with Those Guyz will return this year.  Other favorites that never fail to entertain will be the comedy and illusions of Magic Jon,  Brittney Joe Bissell, and The Katie Ballew Band.  New this year we have many exciting acts that we think should be great additions.  Those include the USAO Band from Chickasha on Friday, Donnie Record - deemed "Tulsa's hardest working rock band", The Kent Family Magic Circus performing at Liberty Theatre on Friday night, and many more acts.

Some of the new attractions joining the festival this year include Richard Hight , an internationally renowned inspirational artist who will create several original works onstage each day.  Oklahoma highway Patrol will set up  a roll over simulator on Main Street that will demonstrate the effects of this type of accident.  Bringing in the heavy equipment, a chainsaw artist will be doing demonstrations downtown and the "Car Bash" will allow you the chance to reduce your stresses by beating a car with a sledgehammer.

Two new, different and exciting additions this year are a bike race and a fiber show.  "Race the Rail" on Saturday morning  will be a bicycle race from Watonga to Geary and back, in an attempt to see who can beat the train back to Watonga.  Registration for the race will include admission to the festival and more information is available at www.racetherail.com.  Northwestern Oklahoma's Fiber Fanatics group will host an inspiring show of all things fiber related, including demonstrations and exhibits of spinning, weaving, crochet, knitting and quilting among other fiber arts.  This show may just enlighten your creative muse into starting a new project or pulling out an old one to finish!  For information on the Fiber Arts Show, contact Donna Smith at SweetieWrays Yarn Shop, 580-623-2112.

Keep watching for more fun news about the Watonga Cheese Festival and feel free to give me a call at 623-5452 if you have any questions or a desire to volunteer. 

Chimes Archive