By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
Sunny, warm weather helped make Cabot’s Fall Cleanup a success for the more than 200 volunteers who worked Saturday morning to tidy the town for this weekend’s CabotFest.
“We didn’t collect as much trash or tires as we normally do,” said Matt Webber of Cabot City Beautiful. “That might mean we’re getting ahead of the litter bugs.”
But, Webber said, volunteers did collect more than 80 discarded tires.
“We normally collect about 200 tires,” Webber said, adding it would be a week or so before Waste Management weighs the garbage and tells Cabot City Beautiful how many pounds of refuse was collected.
Cleanup organizers were hoping for between 250 and 300 volunteers for the event.
“We have such a large area to cover if we don’t have between 250 and 300 volunteers we can’t cover all the areas,” Webber said.
For example, Kerr Station Road didn’t have enough volunteers to clean it thoroughly.
Cabot Parks and Recreation had soft drinks and water for the volunteers while Bank of the Ozarks served hamburgers and hot dogs.
“Cooking out for these volunteers is just one way we try to give back to the community,” said Fred Campbell, a Cabot resident and president of the eastern division of Bank of the Ozarks.
The 27th annual CabotFest opens at 3 p.m. Friday and at 9 a.m. Saturday. Unlimited rides are available until 7 p.m. Friday night with the purchase of a $15 wristband.
There will be approximately 200 exhibitors, carnival activities, live entertainment and demonstrations during the festival.
Members of the Arkansas Forestry Commission will be at the Cabot City Beautiful booth at CabotFest this weekend with acorns for children to plant in grow cups. Each grow cup has instructions on how to care for the acorn to be planted inside it. With proper care, children can have an oak seedling ready for planting.
The Rockettes, the cheerleaders for the Arkansas RimRockers basketball team, as well as the Sirens, the cheerleaders for the Arkansas Twisters football team, will make an appearance.
There will be a rock-climbing wall sponsored by Com-munity Bank, a NASCAR remote control speedway sponsored by First Electric Cooper-ative and the Ark-ansas Game and Fish Commis-sion’s 1,000-gallon mobile aquarium.
There will be lots of free activities for children in “Wacky Land” sponsored by Sonic on Hwy. 321.
The CabotFest Pageant sponsored by Metropolitan Bank features infants to 5 years for boys and infants to 19 years for girls and will be held in the Family Life Center of First Baptist Church beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. Applications are available at the Cabot Chamber of Commerce. Miss CabotFest 2005 will receive a $250 scholarship certificate to the school of her choice.
The entertainment stage sponsored by CenturyTel will host a “Battle of the Bands” throughout the day with the winner performing as the opening act for the free concert at 7 p.m. featuring Andy Childs and the band Sixwire.
Other features at this year’s CabotFest include:
n A food court sponsored by Arkansas State University-Beebe.
n Original arts and crafts for sale by the Tri-County Arts and Crafts Guild
n Car show by the Christian Classic Car Club
n A motorcycle show and poker run coordinated by Arkansas Bikers Aiming Towards Education (ABATE).
For more information on CabotFest, call 501-843-2136 or 501-278-9223.
