Diversity will be the buzzword when Altus turns ou to enjoy the Red River Cultural Fest on Saturday, Sept. 20.The food, entertainment and prizes will highlight and celebrate the diversity shared by Red River-area citizens.
Activities from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. will center in and around the Altus Community Center on Falcon Road and across the street at Imagination Station, soccer field, Museum of the Western Prairie and surrounding grounds. Altus police will close Falcon Road in the area and guests may park in surrounding lots.
Bob Baker, Altus Air Force Base's special events coordinator and cultural fest co-chairman, said the celebration originated with Gen. Mark Zamzow, past wing commander, who wanted to share annual events with the community. The base held an air show every other year, so the Red River Cultural Fest was scheduled biennially in the years between air shows.
Prizes -- an electric scooter, ski trips, a customized trailer, an electric garage door opener and a mystery prize -- will be awarded during the 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. KEYB will host Altus' first ever Battle of the Bands. A stage for dancing will be provided.
People whose names are drawn will choose prizes hidden behind closed doors. Citizens may register free with local merchants or at the festival but must be present to win.
The festival logo drawn by Geary Poling, 97th Services Squadron marketing director, represents the diversity shared in the Red River area and depicts the festival theme, "All the things that make us different make us American."
"We're here to celebrate and promote this Americanism. It's our differences that make us strong. Especially two years after 9/11, we need to celebrate that we're a unified nation made up of different groups," Baker said. "We're not limiting ourselves to international diversity; we're opening ourselves up to all the things that make us different--age, religion, culture, community."
The Altus Chamber of Commerce, Altus AFB, City of Altus, Shortgrass Arts and Humanities Council, Museum of the Western Prairie and interested citizens initiated the festival planning. Each festival committee included representatives from both the community and Altus AFB.
Sid Willis, also festival co-chairman, said 180 letters to organizations in north Texas and southwest Oklahoma yielded 36 participants at the first planning meeting and 45 at the second.
"We had so many people at the meetings that ideas were coming right and left on how to make this a better event," Willis said. "We've been meeting weekly and more for the last two months. It's getting bigger and bigger."
The Altus Lions Club will kick off the event with a 6 a.m. to noon pancake breakfast--adults $4, children $2--in the Community Center's east wing. After the breakfast, the site will become festival headquarters, Red Cross first-aid station and rest area.
Ron Gomilar, base fitness director, will supervise an 8 a.m. 5-K Run around the Altus City Reservoir. Participants will register at 7:30 a.m. at the Hoyt Shadid Park near the Community Center.
Honor guards from Altus AFB and Altus High School will start the formal 10 a.m. opening ceremonies on the main stage (soccer field). Altus Mayor T.L. Gramling, accompanied by Col. David Miller, vice wing commander, will welcome the crowd, and Ashley Bledsoe, 2003 Miss Altus, will sing.
The Jackson County 4-H Riding Club will arrive on horseback in a Parade of Towns. As riders pass the stage, volunteers will place stars, representing communities in north Texas and southwest Oklahoma, on a large map, made by Altus AFB volunteers, Karen Davis, Ann Hamphire and Lynda West.
Ongoing entertainment from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. will occur on the main stage and at a second stage area near the museum. Main stage performances are scheduled by: Fort Sill Army Band, Blue Knights Honor Guard Drill Team, Wild West gunfighters, Studio One Dance Team, Lawton Barbershop Quartet, Yoon's Tae Kwon Do Academy, St. John's Praise Dance Team, Folklorico Dancers, Off the Wall Dance Productions, Family of the Islands, South West Gym Stars, Comanche Youth Dancers.
Planned especially for kids in the Imagination Station area will be McGruff and Sparky, inflatable rides, tattoos, face painting by Little Red, balloons by Jimminee the Clown and a petting zoo. Quartz Mountain Stables will provide horseback rides; the Southern Prairie Library System Bookmobile will show old Western movies.
Many children will receive extra school credit by attending the festival's historical presentations.
Volunteers will staff a 24-foot climbing wall. Many will try their luck at the dunk tank to drop Mayor Gramling, Sheriff Morris Roberts and other prominent volunteers into the water. Costumed gunslingers with Wild West Entertainers of Fort Worth will stage mock gunfights.
"They will shoot up the place and scare the daylights out of everybody," Willis said. "I think the little kids will get a kick out of that."
An arts and crafts show in the community center's west wing will feature ethnic handcrafted items. About 20 varied food booths on the soccer field will serve cuisine from Korea, Mexico, America, Germany, Guam, Thailand and Polynesian countries. Operators of the approximately 40 historical and community information booths (in large tents in the west soccer-field area) include Altus, Childress, Duke, Frederick, Hobart, Hollis, Mangum and Quanah chambers of commerce.
"They look at this as a tool to promote and highlight their communities--all the things that would entice somebody to come to their community," Baker said. "In a sense, it's part of the community diversity."
Scheduled for static display are: Fort Sill cannons (demonstrations from noon to 2 p.m.); Altus Police Department, Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Jackson County EMS vehicles; firefighting equipment from Martha, Altus, Altus AFB; OHP Lake Patrol boat; Luscombe aircraft; Oklahoma National Guard rocket launchers, Humvee and a command track vehicle.
On stage by the museum, educational and entertaining storytellers and historical re-enactors will bring the area's history to life. Buddy Dugan will portray Col. Ranald Mackenzie of Fort Sill's 4th Cavalry, who brought Comanche and Kiowa Indians to Fort Sill, ending Indian wars in Oklahoma.
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