Heritage Days traditions continued on Oct. 18 and 19, even with some adjustments. While the historic recreation at the Harry S. Truman Visitor’s Center and at Kaysinger Bluff were missing from the event this year due to a lack of volunteers, activities at Drake Harbor continued. Things usually at the overlook were brought down to the Harbor, allowing the tradition to still continue.
Another tradition that continued at Heritage Days was student athletes showing their appreciation towards the community and their support by helping clean up Heritage Days. After Heritage Days was over on Sunday, athletes went around to all the tents and setups offering their help for cleaning up.
“I enjoy giving back during Heritage Days and offering my help to the small businesses,” junior Elizabeth Winters said.
All sports programs are asked to attend the cleanup, along with occasionally a few other groups coming to help. With this amount of students, the cleanup typically only lasts for an hour or a little longer while students help the vendors load up.
“Helping with Heritage Days clean up is something that doesn’t take long at all and plays an important role for us to give back and show our appreciation to our community,” sophomore Isaac Daughenbaugh said.
“It is very important for our kids to help out our community. Our community does so much to support all of our athletics and activities. It also teaches kids the importance of ‘paying it forward’,” athletic director Ryan Boyer said.
Heritage Days seems to be falling out for teenagers as compared to years before. Many teenagers don’t actually attend the community festival and only participate in the clean-up with their teams.
“I usually have something going on during the weekend that it is hosted. This year, I had the ACT on Saturday and plans previously made on Sunday,” senior Adison Sherrill said.