MEDORA - The Village of Medora will host their Sesquicentennial Celebration to celebrate the town’s 150th birthday.
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On Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, community members can enjoy a parade, bingo, a car show, a pageant, bounce houses, a petting zoo and more at Pavilion Park in Medora. Samantha Thornton, a member of the Sesquicentennial Committee, believes the event will bring the town together.
“We’ve never had something quite this big in our village,” Thornton said. “Our village is 150 years old, so we wanted to do something big for the community, kind of bring out the community and get them together. Our town has around 380 people, and we’ve had a lot of new people move in in the last couple of years. So it’s going to help integrate all those people into the community that was already here.”
The festival will kick off at 10 a.m. with a parade through town. All other activities start at 11 a.m. with a car show, bounce houses, petting zoo, cake walk, vendors, attendance prizes and more. You can enjoy bingo starting at 12 p.m., followed by the Little Mr. and Ms. Pageant at 2 p.m. The band Back in the Saddle will begin playing at 4 p.m.
The Medora Athletic Association will be onsite selling sodas, teas, waters, popcorn and cotton candy. There will also be several food trucks throughout the day, including Revival Food Truck and Rachel and Company Coffeehouse.
You can purchase merchandise with the Medora Sesquicentennial Celebration logo on it, and there will be a photo booth available for commemorative photos. Thornton is especially looking forward to the Best Beard contest, where the person with the best beard will win a prize, at 1 p.m. that day.
“That’s something that they did at the centennial celebration originally,” Thornton explained. “We’re just trying to keep some of those traditions alive at this upcoming event.”
Thornton noted that Medora has sponsored a few picnics before, but this is their biggest event to date. The Park and Recreation Department will host the sesquicentennial, and they’re looking forward to sharing the day with Medora residents and surrounding community members.
Thornton also hopes that the event helps people connect with each other and share their love for the village. She believes this is an important aspect of living in a small town.
“I think that community and the togetherness is a big part of people being happy where they live and knowing your neighbors and people looking out for each other,” she said. “I feel like a lot of the smaller towns are getting away from that. We used to have fair-type picnics every year when I was young, and we haven’t had them for quite some time. So to me, it’s a big deal to get all the community out, to get everybody together, to have fun and celebrate. I think that’s really important for small towns.”
Thornton encourages anyone with questions to reach out to the Medora Park and Rec Facebook page. For more information about Medora’s Sesquicentennial Celebration, you can visit the official Facebook event page.
“It’s going to be really nice,” she added. “It’s a big deal for our little town, for sure.”
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