Friday, Aug. 13, 2010

Cotton Festival sweetens life in Dos Palos

Money from the Lions Club event benefits the town, O'Banion Park

DOS PALOS -- O'Banion Park last week was home to a small town party. Attendees enjoyed several nights of food and fun at the 42nd annual Dos Palos Cotton Festival, which began Aug. 6.

"It's just a little ol' community fair and that's kinda how it has been forever," said Donald Vincent, the chief organizer of the 42-year-old festival.

The four-day event offered all kinds of activities for those who made their way to O'Banion Park. The festival included carnival rides, midway games, the Miss Dos Palos Pageant, several nights of musical entertainment, a parade, W.I.C. bingo, a beer garden, a horseshoe tournament, a softball tournament (that has been held since 1992) and, of course, the obligatory food and craft booths.

Abel Corchado brought five people with him to the festival last Friday night. One of them was a toddler, his nephew Brandon Lemke. Brandon was enjoying his first carnival ride.

"We live in Merced, and so every year we come here either on a Friday or Saturday," said Corchado. "It's relaxing. It's not like Merced. We go by and buy some stuff; you know tacos, and whatever. Then we go by and watch the game."

Friday's game, the first of the softball tournament, pitted Woolgrowers Restaurant of Los Banos against Merrill Hay of Dos Palos. Woolgrowers' victory was lopsided, the final score being 34-23.

However, by the end of the tournament on Sunday, Dos Palos had taken back the tournament. Vincent reported that Central California Refrigeration sealed the final victory but that the co-ed tournament was won by Get Money, a group that came from Chowchilla and Fresno.

The Cotton Festival, coupled with its annual softball tournament, is an important fund-raiser for the Dos Palos Lions Club.

"(The money) goes to our club and for our activities in town like the football team meals, all the groups that we sponsor in town, and some of the money also stays here in O'Banion Park," said Vincent.

He said the Dos Palos Lions Club has basically been taking care of O'Banion Park since 1994 and that they raise money not only from the proceeds of the cotton festival but also with a crab feed, hall rentals and softball.

"In 1994, when the county ran out of money, we took this park over. This park is maintained by our little local Lions Club," he said. "When we took this over from the county, they had abandoned it. In fact, when we first took it over, we had to cut this park with swathers and bail (the weeds) to get it outta here, they'd let it go so long."

Despite being well attended, the Cotton Festival didn't break any fund-raising records.

"I know that the economy is down a little bit. We were down a little bit from the last couple of years," Vincent said. "We got a lot of people but they just weren't spending the money."

Other groups also were trying to raise money.

"What we are attempting to do is give the kids in Dos Palos an opportunity for recreational activities," said Michael McGlynn whose table was positioned at the end of a long line of food booths.

McGlynn was selling raffle tickets to raise money to help furnish the recreational center.

Despite the hard times, McGlynn was happy.

"I've been very satisfied with the response. I know it's a real tough community -- people are short on cash. People are willing to give a dollar or five dollars, I think, for a good cause. I really compliment the downtown merchants; they really came through. There were very few merchants that did not come up with something to give."

Oblivious to macro-economics, fund-raisers and softball scores, the toddlers seemed to be having the most fun of all.

Denise Terrazas was one of those toddlers. Her face lit up as Joseph Moreno won a large inflatable star for her.