Post Festival Re-Hash

It was a fantastic day! I have no idea how many came to the festival, but it felt like a couple thousand. And we made over $11,000.

We had a couple people come to the Friends of the Library booth and give us checks for over $500. And we had people join the Friends group, too.

We have some tentative pledges in the works from some utilities and big corporations. And next week the library board will meet with County Council to talk about money again, too. We hope to have some announcements to make in the coming weeks.

So who knows? We could end up pretty close to reaching our fundraising goals. Before the first spade of dirt has even been turned!

Now we just have to get going with the commercial developer. We have been waiting for them to render drawings of the retail area so that we can get started on our project. We are not completely sure why they are waiting. Perhaps they don't have firm commitments from retailers? Whatever the reason, we have to know what they are going to do so that we can get started on the bid process. Our facade has to match theirs. And of course we will be hooking onto their streets.

Festival Day!

We've gotten some unusual calls these past couple of days. From vendors saying they don't know where the festival is, what time to come set up, what to bring. We mailed letters out to every vendor that registered and none of come back undeliverable.

So here are the basic details about today.

The festival is at Sun City. Enter at Highway 521. That road is Del Webb Boulevard. Go down about 1/2 mile. At the second right, turn in. That's the sales center. Get someone to tell you where your booth is, and then unload all your equipment. Exit the festival area, turning right on Del Webb Boulevard again. Go down until you cross a bridge/Dam structure. Turn left. You will be entering a construction area. Park your vehicle anywhere in there and catch a minivan shuttle back to the festival area.

The entire festival takes place outdoors, with the exception of the silent auction. The auction is inside the sales center on the right side. There is an entrance on the side of the sales center building.

Vendors are supplying all their tables, chairs, canopies, etc. No power is available.

The Day of the Festival

The Festival is taking place at Sun City Carolina Lakes. The entrance is off highway 521, just south of Shelley Mullis Road. Enter at the light and go down about 3/4 of a mile. You won't be able to miss the festival on the right in front of the sales center.

We will have JROTC members and sheriff's deputies assisting festival goers with parking. All parking is on Del Webb Boulevard, which is about 3 miles long. Park your car along there and start walking back to the festival. Minivans and golf carts will pick up walkers and shuttle them back and forth all day.

The silent auction starts at 10 a.m. and will be held in the sales center. To enter the auction, you'll need to go the right side of the building, by the artist's colony. Bidding stops at 3 p.m. Winning bidders can pick up their items and pay for them at the main booth in front of the sale center. We will accept cash, check and Visa cards.

Wristbands and raffle tickets for the Indian Land quilt will be sold at the main festival booth in front of the sales center. THANKS to Founders Credit Union for handling our money!!

Jamison Jamieson, left, and Linda McCorkle display the Indian Land quilt they made. They are donating the quilt to the Fall Into Fun Festival. The quilt will be raffled and the proceeds from the quilt will go the new Del Webb Library at Indian Land.

Join us for Fall into Fun festival Saturday
From Carolina Gateway
After months of planning and anticipation, the day is finally almost here. Carolina Gateway, Sun City Carolina Lakes and Estrada Extreme Sports are sponsoring the Fall into Fun festival at Sun City from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The festival is a fund-raiser for the Del Webb Library at Indian Land, which will be built on commercial acreage at Sun City early next year. There will be food and fun for everyone, but festival organizers, including Carolina Gateway staff and Lancaster County Friends of the Library board members, are especially looking forward to seeing smiling faces in the children's and teen areas of the festival. Teens will have a chance to scale a climbing wall and test their skating prowess on a skating obstacle course. There will also be skateboard demonstrations at the course. In the afternoon, the teen band Fervent will play in the skateboarding area. A separate children's area will have plenty to keep the younger set busy. Claude Ellis will bring his petting zoo, Have Pets Will Travel, with a small menagerie of animals for cuddling. There will be a llama and miniature pony to meet, along with chickens, rabbits and other small animals. Local churches will offer a variety of craft activities for children. An "outdoor living room" will be set up by the Lancaster County Library system where there will be storytelling by book-reading teachers and librarians. A small puppet theater will offer puppet shows. Roving storybook characters in costume will visit with children and pose for photos. Photographers will sell photos of children with the characters for a fee that will benefit the library. The most unique exhibit in the children's area will be Indian Land Elementary/Middle School science teacher Denise Trufan's inflatable planetarium. Students will be able to go inside the planetarium to hear a story about the solar system and identify the constellations on the walls. Wristbands will be available for $5, giving children access all day to the many activities in the children¹s area. For $10, youngsters can get a wristband access to both the teen and children's areas. Adults will enjoy looking over the many business booths and visiting the artists' colony, where area artists will have their wares on display for sale. Businesses and artists who purchase booth space at the festival are donating items to the festival's silent auction. Handmade baby items, Carolina Panther items, baskets of dog grooming supplies, rubber stamps, specialty food treats and an area rug are among the many items to be auctioned off. Leroy Springs Co. is giving a two-night stay at Springmaid Beach, Springfield Golf Club is donating two rounds of golf and York Technical College is providing a certificate for a free short course. The festival food area will offer up many tasty dishes, including barbecue and pizza from local pizzeria Figaro's. Chick-fil-A will be there, as well as the Pleasant Valley and Indian Land volunteer fire departments. Legacy Park resident Joe Dellinger will offer bratwursts. Many of the food vendors are giving all or part of their profits to the library.
Outside the food area, Midnight Sun Coffee and Di-Dee¹s Diner will offer beverages and desserts to folks that wish to relax on the grass and enjoy some light music played by Sun City resident Larry Cooper. The festival will also feature a motorcycle show from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Bikes will compete in six classes: touring, softail, sportster, shovelhead, radical and antique. Trophies will be awarded for first and second place in each class. Winners will be picked by festival-goers who will get to vote for their favorites. For details or to sign up, call David "Coot" Freeman at
(803) 548-7536 or (803) 242-8011 or Jane Alford at (803) 283-1154. Cost is $20 per bike, which will go to the new library. Twenty different sponsors helped get festival T-shirts printed. The shirts will sell for $8-12 each, depending on size. Those attending need to be sure to pick up a shirt for a souvenir of Indian Land's first community-wide festival. Profits from the T-shirt sales will go to the library. Volunteers to work the festival are still needed.

Festival Update: October 11, 2006

The Fall into Fun Festival is only three days away and I’m starting to get excited about the day!
This past week Rena Livengood and I met with Heather Himes of the teen rock band “Fervent.” The group has been together only eight months, but they have already put many miles under their belts, traveling as far as Tulsa, OK to play at youth events. They are also regular hosts of “Generation Alive,” a quarterly youth event at Open Door Fellowship in Lancaster. I encourage you to visit their website, http://www.myspace.com/FERVENT5, where you can read their bios, listen to samples of their music, and see what other events they have on their calendar.
We received a bit of bad news this week. Wendy’s Hamburgers had to pull out of the festival due to equipment problems. Wendy’s graciously asked us to keep their booth rental fee as a donation to the library. Thank you Wendy’s! We’ll be sure to catch you at a future festival. We continue to be bowled over by the generosity of our sponsors, Sun City, The Carolina Gateway, and Estrada Extreme, but we also are amazed by all the small ways people have stepped up to help, both with their time and money. As a result, we have not had to spend any significant money at all to put on this event. The last time I checked, I think we’d spent less than $200 of library funds to put on this event. Most of that has been for postage and office supplies.

When Wendy’s notified us that they would be unable to come, we immediately thought of J.O. McCorkle. J.O. is a “can-do” guy with the Indian Land Volunteer Fire Department. Ed Cook, our food area chairperson, called J.O. and said “Hey! We need some burgers at the festival!” J.O. immediately agreed to flip some for the festival, despite the fact that he and his crew will be serving at the football game the night before.
We have only one lingering concern about the day. We still have several golf carts and three minivans that need to be driven that day, to shuttle festival goers to and from their cars. Email us at Indianlandlibrary@gmail.com and volunteer to take an hour or two behind the wheel.
See you Saturday!

Festival Update: October 4, 2006

This week I want to tell you a little about the artist’s colony we are having at the “Fall into Fun” festival to benefit the new Indian Land Library.
We have room for 26 artists and crafters to show and sell their wares at the festival. The booths will be scattered around a grassy area to the right of the Sun City Sales Center. There is a gentle, winding sidewalk there and booths will be placed on either side of that. We are looking forward to it being a pleasant place for festival goers to see some of the arts and crafts that are going on in our community. Currently we have about half of the spaces filled with woodworkers, bead crafts, painters and baskets. We’d love to see some quilters, potters, sculptors … we know there are some out there. Please contact the library or Stacey Vaughn to let us know you are interested in bringing your art to the festival.
I have been stopped on the street regularly by folks who want to volunteer at the festival. I have not, however, managed to keep any names! Please contact me via email at Indianlandlibrary@gmail.com or call me at 803.547.0332. I am going to be looking for people to help with a hand washing station and balloons in the children’s area and licensed drivers to drive golf carts and minivans for shuttling. We are also still hoping to have people willing to dress up in storybook character costumes to greet children in the children’s area.