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WOW! Along with a sigh of relief, what else can I say? The 30th Anniversary of the Lee County Cotton Festival had a fabulous
weekend with the weather cooperating, kids having a great time, everyone enjoying the great food, along with the merchants
downtown having great sales, and our crafters in the old Moore’s building selling those early Christmas presents.

We had an excellent parade, everyone I spoke with downtown Saturday just raved and raved. A special thank you to our
Grand Marshall – Chief John Ewing and his family, they looked great riding in the carriage. Having never seen any other
parades in Bishopville, I think it was the best one we’ve ever had! Each of our winners received a trophy for their efforts and
here is that list of parade winners:

                                                Grand Marshal Award – Lee County High School Choir
                                                Best in Theme – SC Cotton Museum and Lee County DSS
                                                Most Unique – Brookshire Abbey
                                                Best Band – Lamar High School
                                                Best Walking Unit – Lee Central High School Band
                                                Best Decorated Golf Cart – “Princess” owned by the Bennetts
                                                Best Antique Car – Dr. Bramlett’s Ford pick-up truck

We also had a window-decorating contest for our merchant’s downtown. If you haven’t slowed down to look at the display of
colorfully decorated windows, you are missing out on some very creative and attractive displays of fall color. This year’s
winners were:
                                                First Place – CURVES
                                                Second Place – GARRICK JEWELERS
                                                Third Place – GINSBERG’S

This entire event would not have been possible without our sponsors!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
                XTRA Mile Truck Driver Training
                SAFE Federal Credit Union
                Bishopville KFC
                Progress Energy
                Jared’s Ace Hardware
                BOSmith Furniture
                National Bank of South Carolina
                Ahlstrom Non-Wovens
                Ahlstrom
                Lee County Landfill – Allied Waste
                Piggly Wiggly
                Highway 15 Liquors
                Baker Abilene Machine, Inc.
                Lee County Economic Development Alliance
                First Citizens Bank
                Bishopville Animal Clinic
                Sparrow & Kennedy, Inc.
                Harold Andrews & Associates
                Bishopville Finance
                Central Carolina Technical College
                Turbeville Insurance Agency, Inc.
                Logan’s Appliance Center
                Norton Funeral Home
                Santee-Wateree RTA
                Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center

                SCANA Corporation
                Rexam Beverage Can
                R. Travis Windham Insurance Agency
                Double R Farms
                Lee County Observer
                Charles Towing
                Bishopville Petroleum Co.
                Ginsberg’s Ladies Shop
                FTC Diversified Services
                Coca Cola Bottling Co./South Atlantic Canners

If you have never been on the planning side of an event, big or small, there are lots of volunteers that work for months
behind the scenes. I cannot thank my volunteers enough for all of their hard work and giving up their weeknights to come to
meetings and get everything in order to pull of such a large community event.

My undying gratitude goes to the following volunteers for their dedication all the way until Midnight Saturday night.

        Al Kelley – wins the award for saving the event with his master-electrician skills (ask him about it)
        Pam Kelley
        Julia Bell
        Sharon Criminger
        Elizabeth Snyder-Powell
        Zack Medlin
        Michael Seeby
        Jolie Driggers
        Amanda Melton
        Eugene, Jennifer and Jessica Chapman
        Bobbi Adams
        Louie and Vickie Moniz
        Wiley Alexander
        Millie Scott
        Tommy Smith
        Willie Mae Muldrow
        Doris Scarborough
        April Scarborough
        David Winstead
        Fred and Shelby Butler
        Wanda Scaffe
        Rodney Timmons
        Trumaine Fredrick
        Pearl Nelson
        Shauntae Holmes
        Larry Vaugh
        Janice Atkinson

Not only does this event take volunteers, it also takes coordination with lots of different entities within Bishopville. First and
foremost, I want to thank City Council for their willingness to allow me to bring the festival back downtown. I trust they were
pleased with the outcome. Thank you to Food Lion and Gayle Kerr of Bishopville Tire for allowing us to use their parking lots
for staging the parade. I’m not sure how many of you might have noticed the cattle gate that was erected around the new city
flag park, but we have Dr. Currie to thank for allowing us to ‘steal’ that from his back yard for the weekend. I’m sure the cattle
in Lee County didn’t mind not being inoculated this weekend.

A standing ovation goes to Chief John Ewing and his efforts with the SC State Guard, his city officers and the sheriff deputies
who pulled together to keep downtown safe and secure throughout the weekend. They were wonderful to work with, very
accommodating and really helped us with getting traffic re-routed and making sure the crowds of people felt safe. I
appreciated their professionalism and their willingness to help us. A special thank you to Cam for escorting us with our bags
of money across Main Street.

Mike Bedenbaugh and his crew of firefighters are not to be left out, as they helped us put together the fireworks and made
sure they went of safely. As dry as it has been, I know they were concerned, but with all the precautions they had us take, the
fireworks were a huge success.

I trust that I haven’t forgotten anyone, and I apologize if I did. Lastly, thank you to Lee County for supporting us on this
momentous 30th anniversary of our Lee County Cotton Festival. It won’t soon be forgotten.