From the Mayor’s desk:

Blodgett Melon Festival

I want to thank everyone for showing up and supporting our event. I also want to thank the following selfless people that helped make this event happen: announcers JD McClard, Jonathan McNeely, and Mike Riley, parade organizer Phil Deason, Kelly Band, SCRFD, Steam engine operator Doug Beggs and cooperator Cheryl Beggs, and all who participated in the parade. We want to send a special shout-out to Deani Hurst and Mike Riley for repairing our watermelon float for another run. Special thanks to Blake Wade for the melons and sound system, and who is now our city editor with the help of his wife, Madalyn. We want to thank Brooke Marriott for the melon games and the one-mile run.

I want to thank the board member Markel Fitzpatrick, his wife Ramona and family, the Hurt family, board member and personal assistant Lisa Haynes, my cousin Brett, Beverly, and family from Oklahoma, my wife and helpmate, Margaret Russell, and we thank all our outside vendors. I thank my son Rob and crew for a great fireworks show every year. We also want thank Gail Riley for all the great professional pictures that we have to show off. She does a great job and puts a lot into it. This celebration reflects a period of time in the early 1900s where 1,000 train carloads of melons were shipped out of Blodgett in one season. We thank everyone for keeping our agricultural legacy of big melon growers alive. We hope everyone was treated in a special way and had fun and that you want to return for a day of fun and laughter again next year.