The 2015 Heflin Sawmill Festival was held Sept. 12 and was blessed for the seventh consecutive year with beautiful weather. The day started with vendors arriving before 7 a.m. ready to display their arts, crafts and food. The festival officially started at 8:30 a.m. with the 5k Fun Run with men, women and children winning in their division. Lovely young ladies gathered at Lakeside High School gym at 8:30 a.m. for the annual Heflin Sawmill Beauty Pageant. The pageant started with the interview competition followed by the formal evening gown competition at 10 a.m.
A first time event for the festival was an area for flea market vendors; an area where “My junk is someone else’s treasure.” The Village of Heflin also sold memorabilia from the Heflin High School Gym to the public. This event brought out a large crowd and many alumni eager to get a piece of history from the Old High School.
Another first time event was our Chili Cook-off. Great cooks made it hard to pick the winners. The general public bought taste caps and made their choices. The votes were tallied and were very close. First place was Ruby Brantley with $100, second was Lito Limosnero with $50 and third went to Betty Sanders with $25.
Rounding out the fun filled day was a sold-out concert of awesome country western music. Performing this year was Granny’s Cadillac, Black Water Bride and Louisiana Swamp Donky. By 10:30 p.m. everyone was wonderfully worn out and ready to head home.
Our thanks go out to the Webster Parish Convention and Tourism and Entergy for their support with grant monies. We also thank the Village of Heflin and the 60 local sponsors who so faithfully support us each year. Thank you for helping us to reach our yearly goals. We are small but we accomplish worthy goals by supporting our local schools,
Central Elementary and Lakeside Junior and Senior High. Each year we are able to present one senior from Lakeside with a $1,000 scholarship. We also honor four deserving teachers with our $400 teach grants.
This year The Heflin Sawmill Festival committee presented grants at $400 each to Lakeside Junior and Senior High school teachers Josh Beavers and Martin Cole. Central Elementary Teachers Debbie Baskin and Jill Leppert also recieved grants. Lakeside Senior Cayla Kinsey received a $1,000 scholarship and Payton Curry was presented a $400 Beauty Pageant scholarship for the 2015 school year.
We are proud to do this; but without your faithful support we could not achieve these goals.
Cathy Lee is President of the Heflin Sawmill Festival Committee