Celebrating 16 years of turning Suwannee County blue!

Wellborn News

News from the Wellborn Outback

For three years with the generous help of lots of folks in our home community, Wellborn managed to enjoy a genuine Small Town USA Celebration, with little invasion from the world beyond the outback.

By Linda Dye

The countdown for the Wellborn Community Association’s (WCA) Annual Blueberry Festival has begun, with just a mere two days before the Wellborn outback will explode in celebration of the WCA’s 16th Annual Blueberry Festival. But the real story, of how the festival we know today came to be, has been lost in the shadows of times past. And so, as the late commentator Paul Harvey would say, “And this is the rest of the story.”

The WCA’s Blueberry Festival, as we know it today, is really the offspring of a small 4th of July celebration that first saw the light of day in 1989. The celebration was done in the tradition of Small Town USA - with all the trimmings - a parade, raffle, food and cake walk. All monies collected from the sale of raffle tickets, food and the cakewalk would be donated to the Wellborn Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) to help the WVFD purchase new equipment.

The celebration was the brainchild of a group of business owners that made up the core of commercial businesses located in downtown Wellborn. In the beginning only five people actually made up the planning committee: Charlotte Arnold, who operated Charlotte’s Beauty Shop and Carousel Thrift Store; Karl Wolff, proprietor of Wellborn’s most popular business of the day, Karl’s Salvage; local upholster, Betty Barns, and her assistant, M. L. Lewis; and yours truly, Linda Dye, seller of antiques and old dusty collectibles.

I like to call our little group the Fabulous 5. And for three years with the generous help of lots of folks in our home community, Wellborn managed to enjoy a genuine Small Town USA Celebration, with little invasion from the world beyond the outback. Our only disappointment was that we could not have fireworks, because we did not have the funds to hire a professional pyrotechnic person - you know, that special someone who can throw a firecracker the farthest and not start a fire or blow up the outback.

And then it happened ... pay-dirt as they say in the movies. At the end of our third year of celebration, Charlotte suggested that we split any future monies we raised with the WVFD, instead of letting them have it all. And, Charlotte said, with our share of the money we could do other things, like buy playground equipment for Wellborn’s all but forgotten community park. But, we were informed that in order to keep part of the monies we made from our Small Town USA Celebration, we needed to choose a name for our civic-minded organization and incorporate. Thus was born the Wellborn Community Association, and its world famous Blueberry Festival.

So, come on out to the Wellborn outback on Friday, June 5, and Saturday, June 6, and help the WCA paint Suwannee County “Blueberry Blue” as we celebrate our 16th Annual Blueberry Festival. You will enjoy two days of live entertainment by Suwannee County’s own legendary country recording star, Herold White, and his band, the Country Masters, along with many other fine artists. The WCA’s Country Store will be open and selling everything blueberry, like cobbler, pies, jams and jellies, muffins, and even blueberry bubble gum. There will be arts and crafts vendors from far and wide, selling beautiful handmade items, and food vendors that will offer a delicious selection of foods, from seafood to fried Twinkees. Now, that should satisfy even the most discerning palate. And be sure to come out early Saturday morning, 7 to 10 a.m., so you can enjoy the WCA’s world famous Blueberry Pancake breakfast before you watch the WCA’s “My Florida” themed parade, which will begin at 10:30 a.m. Hope to see you there.