Wednesday, October 2, 2024
SPRINGTOWN — Wild West Festival mainstay Mary Harms received the key to the city from Mayor Greg Hood last Saturday and intends to start using it immediately.
“I’m going to start opening doors pretty quick,” Harms said, laughing.
Harms came to the Springtown Tabernacle at noon Saturday, the day of the Wild West Festival that she helped create 40 years ago and coordinated this year, thinking that volunteers were gathering for a group photo. She was surprised to learn she was being honored by the city of Springtown and Springtown Area Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s a very special, special, special award and honor,” Harms said. “I was very humbled to get it.”
Hood proclaimed that Sept. 21, 2024, was Mary Harms Day in Springtown.
“Over the course of the last four decades Mrs. Mary Harms has been an integral part of the festival's success by dedicating countless hours to its production,” read Hood’s proclamation. “Mrs. Harms’ tireless dedication has benefited generations of Springtown residents and visitors who have attended these events.”
Harms started the festival in 1984 with Drs. Larry Murphy and James Gieb as well as then-chamber secretary Judy Smerud, who later became chamber executive director.
“She's the one that came to us and said, ‘Hey, we need to do something about bringing the folks down to our square. It’s such a pretty square, and there's nothing really going on,’” Harms recalled. “Of course, at that time, there were no peewee football games or any of those Saturday activity things like there are now. And so, we just thought it was a great opportunity to bring folks to the square, people meet people, have a good day's entertainment, and it has grown from that.”
The festival started off small with about 10 vendors inside the Tabernacle, Harms said. Nowadays, the festival hosts over 200 vendors and was sold out of booths this year.
In the early days of Wild West, Harms said volunteers tried out different ways of spicing up the event, like hosting a fiddling contest and cooking hamburgers.
“We didn't have very many volunteers at that time,” she said. “Of course, now we have way over 100. Starting out, it was kind of a grassroots call-somebody-and-see-if-they'll-come-and-help-you type deal.”
Not only was this the 40th anniversary of the Wild West Festival, but it was also Harms’ last year as coordinator of the event. She’s passing that torch to chamber board member Andrew Alvis, but she’ll still be around to volunteer at the festival. The coordinator job entails getting banners hung up, preparing directional signage for the day of (such as, “no through traffic,” “exit here” and “do not enter”), blocking off areas and setting up tents.
Volunteers also help vendors enter, unload their products and exit the square on the day of the festival, a strategy that Harms picked up from going to the San Antonio Livestock Show years ago. She noticed there were people to help with unloading and was inspired to bring that practice to the Springtown Chamber.
“It's the best thing we did,” Harms said. “It really works great. We get lots and lots of compliments on the ease of them coming in, people helping them and then moving out.”
Harms is confident that Alvis is up to the task of taking on her former coordinator role and will come up with new ideas. She laughed at the fact that when she was training Alvis, she wrote down a list that the digitally minded Alvis took a picture of with his phone.
“He's going to work it different than I did, but Andrew is a hard worker,” she said. “He’s very conscientious of what he does, and he wants to make the chamber proud.”
Harms praised Chamber Executive Director Terri Toone and administrative assistant Dene Berry for their work in putting on the festival. She also credited Toone and Berry for listening to her advice and knowledge of what will and won’t work at the event.
“You can’t ever make it perfect, but we try to make it as perfect and comfortable as we can,” Harms said. “That's all we can ask for.”
Wild West Festival has certainly grown in 40 years, and with that growth comes the need for more vendor space, shuttles to transport people and places to park, Harms said. Despite these challenges, she hopes the event never leaves the Springtown Square.
“People love the Tabernacle, the grounds,” Harms said. “It's the center of Springtown.”
