ASHLAND —
Fun and learning will be offered this weekend during the 18th annual Booker T. Washington Festival at Dawson Pool in Ashland.
Children will be able to enjoy swimming, inflatables, bean bag toss tournaments, basketball, horse shoes, face painting and more, all for free. This year Dora and Diego characters will also make an appearance at the festival, said Gwen Masterson, festival organizer.
A beauty pageant, the festival’s most popular event, Masterson said, will be at 4 p.m. Sunday. In the case of rain, the pageant will be at a different location, Masterson said. Both boys and girls are invited to enter.
“Everyone gets a trophy. I think every child is special, so everyone is a winner,” she said.
Entry fee for the pageant will be $25 per child.
Masterson said the festival was started by her uncle, James Johnson. He organized the festival for a long time, but when he became ill a few years ago, Masterson took his place. This is her third year organizing the festival, she said.
The goal of the festival, she said, is not only to bring the community together, but to teach children the history of the nearby Booker T. Washington school that closed in 1961, which served Ashland’s black community before integration.
“Some children already know the history of the school, but when alumni who used to go to the school come to town we learn more. ... There’s a lot we still don’t know. For example, we still don’t know where the basketball trophies went,” Masterson said.
The festival will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the pool and continue through Labor Day.
The festival is still in need of sponsors. If the festival does not gain more sponsors, this may be its last year, Masterson said.
“I’d like to see everyone participate and support us and come down to have fun,” she said.
For more information about the festival or to become a sponsor, call Masterson at (606) 393-5014.
SHANNON MILLER can be reached at smiller@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.
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