Cornucopia Days, the Kent Lions Club, a group of people in my town who did things, to do things, like all other cities do in our United States, to foul up traffic and sell a bunch of knickknacks that we can store in our garages until we get tired of tripping over them and put them out for next year’s garage sale.
That is about what I thought of our Lions Club for more years than I’d like to admit. Being that I’m not shy about my opinion and sometimes a little loud, the Lions Club of Kent seemed to avoid me as well.
Then something surprising happened last year. Someone from the Lions Club called me and asked if I would like to photograph the Cornucopia Days celebration. I asked if they had the wrong number, and why on earth would they ask me of all photographers?
The voice said that they got my name from one of their leaders. “Gary Atwood said you worked together during high school, boxing groceries, joined the Navy together in 1962, and you photographed his wedding.”
So how could I refuse?
So now I have seen the Kent Lions Club from the inside. It has certainly been a different view than it was in the past. And I have seen Cornucopia Days from a different angle than before also.
Let me share it with you. These people are volunteer workhorses. They are “never stop,” organizing, figuring, calculating, tireless Kentonians, who by the end of Cornucopia Days were dragging their exhausted bodies but still able to raise their chins high enough to push a smile out.
This isn’t a government funded celebration. These aren’t salaried individuals. No pats on the backs for these Kent neighbors of ours. There are no important people here. The main reason for this is to provide a great event and more throughout the year to raise money for people in need. I personally know that a large sum went last year to the MARSOC Foundation, which builds and supplies replacement parts and physical therapy for our military wounded in war.
The Cornucopia Days festival was bigger and better this year than ever before. There were more booths, more food, more unique handmade, more usable items to purchase than ever before. There were more things for kids, more for families and more room for people with disabilities, and what I look for, more smiles for the camera this year.
I really loved the whole four days, and honestly this is coming from someone who refused to attend Cornucopia for a long time before last year. They have convinced me that this is a really good program for Kent, for the people of Kent, and I believe that I will even become a member, that is if they will stop being too busy to get me an application to join.
They do need more people to help as the ranks have slimmed with retiring oldsters. You can join with me, if you can keep up ….
Longtime Kent resident Don Dinsmore regularly contributes to the Kent Reporter.
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