Knox’s big August festival might be in jeopardy following an announcement last night that the Friends of the Park Organization would be dropping its sponsorship of the Harvest Days Festival. The organization had been in charge of the three day event for the past six years. Friends of the Park President, Tony Radkiewicz, explained the organization’s decision.
“We’ve discussed it since July and we pretty much came to an agreement in late October, early November,” said Radkiewicz. “It’s been six fun years and we’ve learned a lot, we’ve done a lot, and we’ve made a lot of friends in the vendors that call us and come back year after year. The excitement of the three day festival is always great, but it’s hard work and planning from December to August and we’ve done our share. I’m sure there’s a non-profit organization out there that could use the money and has the manpower to run the Harvest Festival.”
Radkiewicz said the Friends of the Park will continue with some of their other activities.
“We had a ’50’s night last year and we’d like to do it again this year, we’ve also had Cruise Nights the first Saturday in August, and there might be a couple of other projects we might do. We’ll continue to raise funds for the parks to help out where we can. We’ll keep the community alive and keep drawing attention to the City of Knox and Starke County.”
Radkiewicz said that the Friends of the Park, and himself personally, will help in the transition if any other organization wants to sponsor Harvest Days. He gave his report to the council members last night saying last year’s Harvest Days had made $2,140.79 after expenses of $8,055.21 was subtracted from the profits.
