To the editor:

The 16th Annual Pasty Fest was a great success, a wonderful celebration of the Copper Country, pasties and the beautiful weather we were lucky to have on Saturday, August 17th. Our vendors sold over 1400 full size pasties, plus 400 minis that were part of our Bake-Off event, Jon Ziemba ate 3 pasties in 5 minutes in the Eating Competition and hundreds of kids got soaked in the foam machine. It was a great day.

After all the fun is over, and every tent, tote and banner is stowed you realize that community events are not just for a community, they are about community. Pasty Fest is an event that is dependent on good weather (and boy have we had some bad weather) and lots of cooperation from lots of people. In a political environment where no one seems to be able to agree on anything; immigration, insurance reform, international trade, etc, it is refreshing to see a community come together over something as simple as a pasty. Many, many people worked to make this event happen and I appreciate all of their commitment, effort, patience and willingness to work together.

The catalog of individuals and organizations on our thank you list is so long as to greatly overrun the allowable word count for the Letter to the Editor feature so in short; thank you to all volunteers, parade participants, car show participants, horseshoe tournament participants, vendors, sponsors, service providers, coordinating municipalities and utilities, and the Pasty Fest Planning Committee for making this event happen!

If you’d like to see our full thank you list, become a volunteer, or Main Street Calumet, visit us on Facebook @mainstreetcalumet or at mainstreetcalumet.com!