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WAVERLY - For the first time in years, the annual Canal Days festival has changed locations and Kay Hamilton hopes that's not the only shift it makes.
Hamilton has served as the event's organizer during five of its seven years, and after the event lost money in 2001, Hamilton thinks the change to Canal Park will help return the focus of what inspired the event - history.
"I think it will be better," she said of the June 14 to 16 event which is fashioned around the Ohio and Erie Canal that once passed through the city. "We have the shelter houses and the trees for shade. Part of a lock is still there and we thought it was the most fitting place to have it."
In past years, the event was held at a lot in front of Waverly High Shool. One of the biggest challenges facing Hamilton is a lack of membership on the Canal Days Committee. Only six people served last year and how many of them will return this year remains unclear.
For the event to go off as smoothly as possible, Hamilton said a committee of 20 people will be needed, which would allow subcommittees to be formed.
"We have to work hard and most of us work full-time," she said. "There are so many things to do during the festival, there needs to be people there." Despite the fact that she recently ran an advertisement for help, responses remain low.
Without enough help, Canal Days could be in jeopardy. City Council recently decided to toughen its giving standards and make organizations who get donations from the city more accountable.
"If the consensus is that Canal Days is the part of our history we want to promote, then we should go all out and promote it," said Nathan Davis, city economic development director. "I think every city should have a festival to promote themselves."
Davis has agreed to serve on the committee, but because of other obligations, he won't start until next year. He said the city's Web site could be useful in promoting the festival.
Canal Days' biggest cost is liability insurance and Hamilton said she likes to have enough money left over from year-to-year to pay it. But last year, after the event lost money, she paid the difference from her own pocket.
"I did it willingly because I want to see it go on," she said. "It is a lot of work and stress. If there were more people on the committee, it may take the stress off."
Hamilton wouldn't say how long the event can continue without enough volunteers, or how long.
She hopes this year's event will signal a change.
"We're hoping to have at least 40 old-time crafters in the park," she said. "We're advertising in the big cities for free spaces for old-time crafters and requiring them to dress in period clothing."
She plans to put the rides in a parking lot of the nearby Eagles Club and have a walkway so people can move back and forth between the two areas.
After seven years of setting up in the Waverly High School parking lot, the Canal Days Festival will start a new tradition this year as it moves to Canal Park.
The weekend of June 15 and 16 will usher in old time talent and crafts to the streets of Waverly and will be set up in an atmosphere more becoming to the yearly event.
"It is a more suitable place for the Canal Days Festival, since there were canal locks actually there," said Kay Hamilton, coordinator of Canal Days. "And there is going to be a lot of shade and the shelter houses will come in handy. Usually it is really hot that time of year and we will be able to use that shade."
Although Canal Park is a smaller location, the Canal Days committee have been wanting to hold the celebration there since 2000. They are working in cooperation with the Eagles Lodge to set up rides and games in the parking lot just behind the park.
"There won't be enough room for everything (in the park)," said Hamilton. "We are going to fill the park with all the old-time things - old-time crafters, old-time entertainers, and displays.
"We want to have something for everybody. I don't think it will be smaller. When we used the high school lot, we were never able to fill the whole thing. I just don't think it will look as spread out."
Aside from the new location, there will also be new (or perhaps old) people mingling around the festival this year. People dressed as none other than James Emmitt and canal boat Captain Pearl Nye are just a few of the characters that will share the history of Waverly and the canal with passersby.
"We've changed and I believe we are growing," said Hamilton. "It takes awhile to build up the people that come through and I think it is getting well-known and we are getting a lot of people looking forward to the festival."
Canal Days will also be hosting the talents of Roger Dillard and the Ohio River Minstrels as well, acts that are familiar to the festival. Dillard brings with him quilters, woodcarvers, a blacksmith show, and a stunt show involving knives and tomahawks. The Ohio River Minstrels will hit home with unique songs specifically about the canal that once passed through Waverly and original folk songs, too. The festival will also be continuing with the Father of the Year contest, the baby contest, and the Queen's pageant.
"I am hoping (the festival) will raise awareness about our beginnings," said Hamilton. "Because Waverly would not have been a town had the canal not come through.
"We want to get back to a more old-time, more historical theme."
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