ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Labor Day weekend is about half a week away, and for more than a century, in addition to being the unofficial end of summer, the holiday has been the time for the biggest annual event in the small town of Kismet.
This year marks the 105th Little World’s Fair, and organizers Brett Reiss and Neal Coffey said this year’s event has plenty of fun for all who come to the Seward County community.
Everything gets under way at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with a paint ball fundraiser at the Kismet baseball field, and at 6 p.m., there will be a trapshoot fundraiser at 14469 Road V southeast of Kismet. Money raised from both events will go to the Southwestern Height Shooting Sports team.
New for this year, an ice cream social will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Kismet Methodist Church.
“People can bring their lawn chairs and sit out,” Reiss said. “We’re going to be playing a movie on the big screen. We’re going to be playing ‘McFarland.’ We’ll be starting that about 8:30. It should be getting dark enough.”
Both the ice cream social and the movie will be fee of charge. Sunday’s fun kicks off with a church service starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Kismet Methodist Church or a church of choice, and at noon, those who come to the LWF can get lunch at the Taste of Kismet at the Pavilion for $5 a plate.
“It’s a smorgasbord of dishes,” Coffey said. “All the ladies and men of the area bring in their dishes, and it’s good food. We’re going to run that until 1 p.m., and we’re going to have some drawings for prizes while we’re in there. We did not do it last year. People wanted something different, but at the end of the day, they missed the Taste of Kismet.”
Sunday will likewise have some drawings for gift cards and other door prizes, and at 3 p.m., a 3 on 3 basketball tournament starts at Kismet Grade School.
“We’re going to try to do junior high and high school divisions,” Reiss said. “There’s no need to reach out to me beforehand. My number’s on there, but as long as people are there and signed up by 3 p.m., we’ll get a bracket built.”
Reiss said that event used to take place outside, but with high winds and temperatures in place during the Labor Day weekend, the tournament was moved inside. With that move being made, the tournament now has grown from a few teams to as many as 15 to 20 in a given year.
“We’re going to try to break that down to a couple different divisions so we can award more individuals and try to get some good competition,” Reiss said.
In recent years, Plains’ Hat Creek Butchery has been part of the LWF fun, and Reiss said that business will have a hamburger stand starting at 4 p.m. Sunday, and more kids activities will start at that time as well, including the turtle treasure hunt and poker run, both returning for this year.
Coffey said Tim and Anita Evans will head up the poker run this year.
“They do that up at the baseball fields, and they set up things for the kids to find,” Coffey said. “It is a typical poker run just like what we think of for motorcycles, but it’s for kids. It was brought back by popular demand, and I think it’s going to be big.”
At 5:30 p.m. Sunday, a community church service will be at the Pavilion. In the past, that service has been put on by the Kismet Ministerial Alliance with a donation taken during the service, but with the number of pastors declining in Kismet, the service is now being led by Plains’ Cornerstone Church.
“They’re going to come over, and they’re going to offer the service this year, which is going to bring us a different look at some of the music and the styles of music,” Coffey said. “We really hope that’s going to become a new tradition for us.”
Following the church service starting at 6 p.m., registration for a cornhole tournament will take place north of the Kismet Post Office for $20 a team.
“We’ll have some lights set up if it goes into the evening hours as the sun sets,” Reiss said. “There’ll be a lot of good competition and a lot of fun.”
Formerly held in a lot south of Kismet City Hall, the cornhole tournament was moved last year due to the construction of the new Kismet Public Library.
Also at 6 p.m. the Kismet Lions Den will sell homemade ice cream and sno cones throughout the evening. At 7 p.m., the Peterson Farm Brothers will perform at the Pavilion. Reiss said community members are excited to have the brothers in town for the weekend.
“Those brothers went viral a few years ago, and they continue to put out new stuff,” he said. “We’re real excited to have them out and share their message and some of their talents.”
From 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday at the Pavilion, there will be a bingo benefit for Cheyan Woods, a local cancer patient, and from 9 p.m. to midnight, Sunday’s fun wraps up with a street dance on Main Street.
Monday morning kicks off early with the Mark Verhoff Memorial 1-mile, 5K and 10K runs at 6:30 a.m. Later in the morning at 9 a.m., Lucena’s Party Rentals will have bounce houses north of the post office, and at 9:30 a.m., Reiss will begin lining up the parade.
“We’ll begin the parade lineup on the north end of Main Street in the Kismet Methodist Church area,” he said. “We’ll have some signs up for people to know where to park. My phone number’s on the schedule. There’s really no need to call ahead of time and schedule anything or register. We’ll get registration sent out to keep people in order so they can be recognized as they go down Main Street. That parade is one of the better parades in our area.”
Local farmers Larry and Norman Roehr and their spouses are the grand marshalls for this year’s parade. Reiss said the couples have both been longtime supporters of the Kismet and Seward County communities.
“They’ve supported the Little World’s Fair for many years,” he said. “They’re local farmers north and west of town. We’re excited to have the opportunity to honor them and show our appreciation for everything they’ve done for our community.”
Following the parade at 11:30 a.m. is what Coffey called the anchor of the Labor Day events – the free ham and bean feed in the Pavilion.
“We’ve got some different ham hocks to go in there this year,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll be good. From there, we just continue with the afternoon’s event on Main Street.”
Though early forecasts are calling for mild temperatures for Labor Day Monday, Reiss said the day can often prove to be a hot one, but there are some things to help cool everyone off, especially for children with the frozen T-shirt contest scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on Main Street.
“No, you don’t wear the frozen T-shirt, but we wad that up, knot it up, soak it in water and freeze it,” he said. “The kids have to beat it and tear it and pull it apart until it can be put on. Once they get it apart, they have to put it on.”
Other afternoon activities include a water ballon contest bringing the Labor Day fun to a close at 4 p.m., and Reiss said there are always some good prizes that go out to the winners of that and the frozen T-shirt contest. Drawings for a gun raffle, a Hat Creek Butchery beef bundle and a 50/50 drawing will likewise take place Monday.
“There’s going to be drawings people can participate throughout the day,” Reiss said. “We’ll have those things set up where people can purchase tickets at all these events. If they want to purchase raffle tickets before hand or if they’re from out of town, they can get hold of anyone of us on the Little World’s Fair committee. We’d be glad to hook them up with that. We will do a live drawing for those prizes at 3 p.m. on Facebook Live.”
In the past, a carnival has been part of the Little World’s Fair, but Coffey said at this time, there is no indication that activity will ever be back for the Kismet celebration.
“Linda Johnson at the Activity Center is working with us to try and find one,” he said. “She feels optimistic she’ll eventually find one. Right now, there is no carnival in place. It’ll just be Lucena’s Party Rentals and all the games.”
Reiss said while the carnival has long been a staple of the LWF, regulations have made getting carnivals difficult.
“The smaller ones are the only ones interested in coming to smaller festivities like this,” he said. “It’s harder and harder, but we still try to put a lot of emphasis on having activities and kids events to give everyone a wide range of things to do and participate in.”
Like many organizations, the Little World’s Fair is looking for volunteers to help run activities.
“It’s a small group of people who are putting these on,” Coffey said. “We’re down to 10 solid volunteers showing up for everything. This group steps up big. We started the preps on this in late March, early April, and they really do a good job of putting things together. We’re needing more people to come in and help with these events. That participation base is dwindling.”
Reiss said LWF volunteers already in place are very motivated to keep the event’s legacy alive.
“Everyone works their tail off to make sure this legacy continues, and we are welcome to other people stepping in,” he said. “To do all these events, it takes a lot of work, a lot of organization, and we would welcome some help. There’s some activities we no longer do just because of the lack of support, lack of volunteers. The volleyball, sand volleyball tournaments no longer happen. We dropped a couple of those events last year, but a few people stepped up to bring them back. We’re always looking for more people, and it’s not a lot of time commitment. The day of, it takes a lot of time to get things going.”
Those wanting to volunteer with the LWF have several ways of becoming involved.
“They can contact myself or Brett, and we can get them hooked up,” Coffey said.
“We have a Facebook page,” Reiss said. “If anyone looks at Kismet Little World’s Fair, they can leave a comment on there, a message on there,” he said. “We’ll see that. Our phone numbers are all over the schedule of event. Just reach out if there’s an activity they’d like to help out with, a new activity or an old activity they’d like to bring back. We would definitely welcome the help.”
In the past during Labor Day weekend, the population of Kismet multiplies, and Coffey said those who come flock to a couple of events in particular.
“We have an influx of people around the parade and the bean feed,” he said. “It dwindles back down to a younger generation who participates in all the games.”
Reiss said none of what happens on Labor Day weekend in Kismet is possible without the support of the community.
“We have several community members and businesses that give generously, that allow us to have the bounce houses, street dance and all these other games,” he said. “We have prizes for the winners and participants. None of it would be possible without the generous support of our community.”
Reiss said those needing more information about the Little World’s Fair likewise have several means of finding it.
“We will have a schedule of events posted on our Facebook page pinned to the top,” he said. “We also have individual flyers for a lot of these bigger activities – the Taste of Kismet, the Peterson Farm Brothers, the gun raffles. We’ll try to have some of those pinned to the top of the Facebook page so people can check in on that and find out more information.”
The theme for this year on LWF shirts is “Try That in a Small Town,” which Reiss said can mean two different things.
“I think it means come try out the small town,” he said. “You can try anything in our small town. You’ve got the Taste of Kismet. You have the worship services. You have cornhole. Come try it in a small town and see what Labor Day in Kismet’s all about.”
