Fun Day: No complaints from the kids

My husband Bud and I spent Saturday evening dragging around a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old (our respective grandchildren). Actually, I think it was Chase and Claire who did the dragging.

We spent a couple of hours at Family Fun Day at Creekfront Park. It’s the third year Hodgenville Main Street and the City of Hodgenville have put on the event.

And thank you, thank you for moving Fun Day to the evening. The cooler temperatures meant the grandbabies could stay out longer.

The kids loved the bouncy house, games, food, duck derby, dunking booth, horse and buggy ride and helicopter.

The volunteers did their best to help the younger ones so they could participate in all the activities. Firefighter Shane Carpenter chaperoned (single-handedly, as far as I could tell) the bouncy house so kids of all ages could have a safe experience.

Air Methods flight nurse Sharon Bell helped the kids into the medical helicopter. She talked to them about safety and made sure we got plenty of photographs.

At the dunking booth, teachers Renee Wright, Lisa Drake and Patrick Walsh encouraged the younger kids to dunk them – a sight that easily could turn into a column on its own. I cannot imagine my elementary school teachers – like Edith Hall and Zelma Duell – volunteering to sit in a dunking booth and asking to get soaked.

Nobody could wield a wooden paddle quicker than Miss Hall. If we had accidentally spilled water on her, we would have been in big, big trouble.

How times have changed.

Anyway, it was good to see Creekfront being used by so many people. It took a lot of volunteers to put on such a program – and I thank each of them.

It seemed that volunteer firefighter and Main Street board member Wally Sparks was in charge of several events. One minute, he, along with wife Barbara, was standing in the creek chasing down rubber ducks. The next minute he was helping to dismantle the bouncy house. Wally, like all the Main Street members, is a volunteer. And sometimes, the praise for volunteers doesn’t flow as spiritedly as the criticism. Make sure you let them know you appreciate their efforts.

Changes?

And speaking of criticism, I have one. (I couldn’t help myself.) I think the name “Family

Fun Day” should be modified to reflect the safety theme that is so prevalent among the exhibits and games. Maybe Family Fun and Safety Day?