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Courtesy Iron River Lions Club
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At the Iron River Lions’ Blueberry Festival (July 27-28, 2013), the boat races and the blueberry pie-eating contest draw big crowds.
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Courtesy Iron River Lions Club
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The festival parade is always a major hit in Iron River.
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Courtesy Iron River Lions Club
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The cardboard boat races provide plenty of thrills, as participants sometimes have to work to keep their boats afloat.
On one hand, the annual Blueberry Festival in Iron River is all about kids and families and having fun outside in the middle of summer.
Common sights are faces dripping with chunks of pie crust and blue goo in the popular pie-eating contest, and the earnest expressions of youngsters doing their best to keep their cardboard boat afloat.
But besides the jolly (and messy) events, the food and the entertainment, the festival also serves as the major annual Iron River Lions Club fundraiser. The Lions Club turns 50 this year, and 49 years ago it took charge of the festival, based at Moon Lake Park on the edge of town.
“Eyesight is a primary objective,” Nan Olson, Iron River Lions Club president, says of the fundraising goals. Proceeds go for vision screenings, diabetes-awareness programs, seeing-eye dogs, and working with LensCrafters to help people needing eye exams and glasses.
In the past, funds have also paid for playground equipment, park maintenance and downtown murals.
“The festival itself is meant to be very family oriented,” Nan says. On that Saturday morning, the tractor pull for boys and girls ages 4 to 12 fills up the park. “What we’ve found is that girls are stronger than boys, when they’re younger.”
For the cardboard boat races, she says, “All you need is cardboard and duct tape.”
Some don’t finish the voyage and boats sink, “but they come back next year with a better one.”
Highlights include the Saturday night queen and princess coronations – roles achieved by the two who sell the most raffle tickets – and the parade at noon Sunday, complete with floats, old cars and horseback riders.
Lions Club member Willard Ogren has been involved from the start; he was chairman of the first two blueberry festivals and says that a few things have changed over the years. For example, the Lions now own some of the carnival rides and activities (like the giant inflatables), which keeps down the costs and boosts the fundraising. After all the years of attending, his favorite events are the kids’ tractor pull and the chicken barbecue.
Iron River Lions Blueberry Festival, July 27-28, Iron River, Wisconsin. www.irlions.com.