Heritage festival to mark 125 years

Columbia County's largest city is ready to celebrate its 125th anniversary with the fourth annual Grovetown Heritage Festival scheduled for Saturday.

"I am just looking forward to having a grand day," said festival organizer Rosa Lee Owens.

Grovetown, chartered in 1881, started as a railroad town and became a city to which wealthy Augustans moved to escape the smothering summer heat near the Savannah River, Owens said.

The festival, with the theme "A Blast from the Past," will begin at 9 a.m. at the main stage near city hall, Owens said.

Entertainment will include square dancers, the U.S. Navy Choir and Band, C.W. Cooper Band, the World Class Cheerleaders and Dancers and karaoke all day. A kiddie park with children's rides, slides, clowns and a dunking booth will be set up at the Senior Center.

"I'm just ecstatic that people have come forth this year and wanted to be a part of it," Owens said.

For the more athletic residents, the Christ Church of Grovetown Ministries has set up a 5K walk/run. The 3.1- mile route will wind through Grovetown from city hall to the Grovetown Elementary School and back.

The cost is $12, and participants will get a commemorative T-shirt. Participants can register in four categories and several age groups by calling Conner Little at (706) 228-1576 or (706) 726-3093, or Dawn Green at (706) 210-5409 or (915) 240-7570.

All proceeds from the walk/run go to support the Grovetown Against Drugs Free Summer Day Camp started by former City Councilwoman Marjorie Adams, who died in February from complications of a stroke.

"We want to try to do her proud," Little said. "That's her program and we want to get behind it and endorse it as much as we can."

For those who'd rather shop than run, more than 60 arts, crafts and food vendors will be at the festival selling their wares, said Marsha Keating, an event organizer.

"The thing that has impressed me is so many senior citizens who have lived here almost a century," Owens said, adding that those older residents will be honored at noon with a balloon release.

For more information on the festival, call Owens at (706) 863-1867.