09/23/2015
On behalf of Wakulla Fun Fest, we want to express our sincere thanks to all those who have supported and attended Fun Fest in Hudson Park over the past few months. Friday, September 11th, was our last date in the series for the event. There will be no Fun Fest this Friday (9/25/2015) or any future Friday dates for the remainder of 2015. The main reason for this is we have not been able to get enough local businesses to support the event through sponsorship. We stated from the beginning that this support was crucial to making Fun Fest an ongoing event. We have some Thank Yous below and some thoughts to you, our much appreciated audience with regards to Fun Fest and future events. We encourage you to read on and offer feedback, so we can use that information to create better events in the future – which is always our goal.
First off, our sincere thanks to the Wakulla County Board of County Commissioners and Wakulla County Parks and Recreation for giving us the opportunity to put on Fun Fest. It was great folks like Dolly, Cody, and Katie that sat down with us a couple months ahead of Fun Fest to clear the way. They shared our same vision and desire to bring something great to our area for all to enjoy.
Our family has resided in Crawfordville since 2004 and started 3 businesses here. We came up with the idea for Wakulla Fun Fest and our goal was to provide an ongoing event where local youths and adults could gather every so often to have some good, clean fun and also enjoy some music, food, and fellowship. We noticed, as many of pointed out, that our kids and young adults were always looking for something to do. Locally, things are limited for them. The alternative requires trips to Tallahassee to find something fun to do. That was the main reason for creating Wakulla Fun Fest.
Our own companies put tremendous time, expense, and effort into Fun Fest to get it off the ground and rolling. Our efforts along with a few wonderful sponsors carried Fun Fest midway through the planned series of 2015 dates (every other Friday). For this type of event to be viable and grow – a number of local sponsors were needed and that never materialized. We’ve been told that “local businesses” (here) strongly support such events as a way of giving back to their community and customer base. These same companies ask all to “shop and buy local” which supports their businesses and we’ve certainly done that.
As all of our staff can attest, we visited numerous local businesses. Many we visited were recently featured as the “Best of Wakulla.” Whether one of the local branch banks or credit unions; auto shops, retail stores, gyms, real estate agencies, or some other type of service provider – that local support wasn’t there, and that was extremely disappointing because Fun Fest was definitely a positive way for them to show their appreciation to Wakulla County.
Now, we did have some locals we want to thank, as they strongly supported Fun Fest. Let’s start with Magnuson Hotel Wildwood Inn. Their management and staff got behind the event and that was truly appreciated. Thanks to The Wakulla News for its ongoing coverage and promotion of the event. Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office also regularly came by and checked on the event – we salute and thank you for all you do daily for us here. We have two local food truck vendors that came each date with great eats: Flying Papi with their award winning hot dogs and Bradley sausages; and Five Star Grub that served up a variety of awesome foods. These locals are hard working and very worthy of that community support and we thank them for their continued support of Fun Fest. Find them around the area and enjoy their awesome foods!
Ironically, the bulk of Fun Fest sponsors came from Tallahassee based companies that wanted to be a part of the event, even if their major customer base was not in this area. They saw the value in giving back to folks in Wakulla County. We thank Keith Lawson Services who sponsored the Arctic Chill Zone. They put in a lot of time and effort to make that happen and gave us the coolest tents for any event we’ve been a part of. Super L**e jumped in as well and they have several shops in Tallahassee and others here in Wakulla County – we love to Super L**e our car and so should you! Refreshment Services Pepsi was a big supporter. Coca Cola and Express Printing also contributed and we thank them all. Freedom 93 FM was our media sponsor and helped promote the event and gave away a number of wonderful prizes to attendees. We also had special volunteers in Lana, Jeremy, Brittany, and Kenny and we thank them for their assistance throughout Fun Fest.
Ongoing events like Fun Fest can succeed. When the business community does get involved to support and help promote such events, the locals turn out in good numbers, and those events turn into wonderful fixtures for the community. It happens in places like Tallahassee and perhaps one day that will also occur here. Until then, we’ll just have to keep traveling North.
Sincerely, The Staff of Wakulla Fun Fest
