BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

The first Annual Roan Mountain Fall Celebration will be held in the Roan Mountain Community Park on Saturday, October 26, 2019, from 4:00-7:00 pm. This is the first year for the event and was the idea of the Roan Mountain Citizen’s Club.

“Roan Mountain State Park chose not to have the ‘Halloween in the Campground’ event this year, so a few of us came up with the idea of a Fall celebration for the community,” said Citizen’s Club member Shellie McKinney.

“Since the kids always look forward to the park event, we thought we would create an event for them. It will just be a fun event with different games, storytelling, music, candy, and prizes.

“This is not a festival because we are not having any craftsmen set up to sell their items,” McKinney continued. “The event is designed for organizations to set up booths for families to stop by and participate.

“Booths will be set up with games, and there will be two food trucks at the event. One will be serving Japanese Street Food, and the other will serve hamburgers and hotdogs. Everything is free except you have to pay for the food from the food trucks. We will also be giving candy or bagged treats to the kids at many of the booths.

“Some of the events we have already planned include hayrides, cornhole, face painting, balloon toss, a kid’s fishing booth, and bingo. We will also have Cheri and Jim Miller playing music, Danny Blevins telling stories, Preston Benfield and his band playing music, Robert Morgan telling stories and Mike Mckinney telling stories.  

“If someone or an organization wants to set up a booth and have an activity for the celebration, it is not too late. We are still looking for people who want to set up booths, though our time is getting a little short.

“If anyone would like to set up a booth, they can contact any Citizens Club Member or send us an email to rhododendrenfestival@yahoo.com. They can also call me, Shellie McKinney, for more information at 423-772-5300.”