GOLDEN APPLE AWARD 2023 Joe & Flora Walker The Applefest Committee is proud to announce that Joe and Flora Walker have been chosen to receive the Golden Apple Award for 2023. This award is presented yearly by the Applefest Committee to recognize and honor special people who have worked and dedicated themselves to serving the Marionville Community. Joe and Flo were married on January 19, 1963 and have been married for 60 years. They first started operating Hillbilly Gas Mart in July of 1983. The iconic "Howdy" fuel tanks have welcomed everyone coming into Marionville ever since and continue to beam brightly to this day. The Walkers have always been community minded and Hillbilly's soon became the center and meeting place of many wonderful ideas and projects, one of which was soon to become known as the Marionville Applefest Celebration. Flo was one of the original founders of Applefest and has been active in its implementation since the very beginning. One of Flo's quotes is, "Bringing communities together is a good thing." You cannot think of Joe without Flo, or Flo without Joe. They are a team. With the recent sale of Hillbilly's, the Walkers are now able to concentrate on being with their family. The Walkers are the proud parents of 2 children, 9 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. Without the great vision of the Walkers, Applefest would never have gotten off the ground and for that we are all so grateful. Congratulations to Joe and Flo. We are so proud to have you as our 2023 Golden Apple Award recipients. 2024 Golden Apple Award Nominations:
The Golden Apple Award is presented to a community member whose works are a service to our town. This honor may be awarded for charitable donations and/or time and energy put into making this world a better place. We would like your help in nominating deserving candidates. If you know someone that exemplifies these qualities, please tell us about them. We need your input to make sure we are aware of deserving individuals. Just click the button below to email a short essay that describes your candidate and the things they have done to deserve this nomination for our 2024 Golden Apple award. Please include your name and contact information in case we have further questions or would like to use your submission. |
"Give Us a Whirl -
With the Great White Squirrel" Throughout my childhood I can recall a large amount of memorable experiences from Marionville's Applefest. From dancing in the square with my grandma to listening to the local singers, to the sweet fresh apple cider; I have found so much joy in the Applefest. Over the years, I have been able to tell that our Applefest festvities have become less and less "apple oriented". So instead of thinking of some ways to re-incorporate apple themed items, I have come up with a few white squirrel themed ideas. Some fo these ideas consist of specialized days, making an additional marathon, and incorporating a scavenger hunt. To start off these various ideas, let's talk about creating a specialized "White Squirrel Day". Creating this day would entail people dressing up in all white, making white face painting available, and having all white decorations. Girls who participate in this Applefest day could wear white dresses or white dress up clothes and the boys could wear white themed pants and shirts. The face painting stands could have white squirrel prints along with other white themed animals and objects. All up and down the square, small businesses advertise their merchandise and service. Each business could decorate their booths with white streamers, white clothes, and sell white themed clothes and merchandise. Along with these businesses, there are multiple food trucks and food booths that can participate in this day too. These other businesses could create white squirrel themed foods and add white colored cups and materials to hold their food and drinks. Moving on to the next idea mentioned, adding an additional marathon. Many people in our community know all about the annual white squirrel marathon, but I think making this marathon a bi-annual even would create a lot of bliss and make a huge stand for promoting white squirrels into our local Applefest. Not only having this marathon in the spring, but making it happen in the fall can create competition and add a sense of community fun and spirit to the festival. Another idea that could help incorporate white squirrels into the Applefest, is by creating an annual scavenger hunt for all who are interested. This scavenger hunt would be white squirrel themed. The scavenger hunt could have a grand prize and a trophy cup that has a white squirrel in the middle for all people to see. Each stop for this scavenger hunt would be at places that someone might be able to spot a white squirrel. Each spot would have a riddle or a question that, if answered correctly, would send them to move on to the next question/spot up until the end. This could be at the town park, in the square gazebo, in near trees, and at the local cemetery. Making these spots where white squirrels are located creates a fun idea for all participants and planners. In conclusion, I have been able to tell our Applefest festivities have become less and less "apple oriented" for years. So instead of some ways to re-incorporate apple themed items, I think we should think of some ideas that can bring more attention to white squirrels. These ideas can consist of various ideas, but my ideas consist of specialized days, making an additional marathon and incorporating a scavenger hunt. |
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