KAB: Field Day – See You Again Another Summer’s Day

By JOHN E. WEARE
KAB

Funnel cakes. Nothing to it. Hot oil, batter, funnel, crisscross pattern . . . wait . . . flip, then serve covered in powdered sugar and/or fruit toppings. That was my flashback from the final time I volunteered in the former Keep Alliance Beautiful Funnel cake booth (trailer). Fast forward to the last weekend of June. Let’s just say I owe 17 people a funnel cake from our first KAB Field Day.

Sans the dessert, I would consider our fun, hopefully educational, event a success. The framework came from a conversation I had with our recycling coordinator, Josh Smith, while walking through the French Quarter a few months ago. He was back in Nebraska while I was between events at the Keep America Beautiful Summit in New Orleans. That seed germinated into a free event with major creative and logistical contributions from Emma Steffy, our education coordinator.

Pepsi donated the use of their trailer while Greg Carter brought a grill and flipped burgers and dogs. My wife and a volunteer from the Job Corps did some major pinch hitting inside the trailer as they took orders and handed out food on buns donated by Harris Sales. Another volunteer assisted Greg, staying after he had to leave and one patty remained perched on the warming rack. KAB is also extremely thankful to more than a dozen additional businesses and individuals who funded or otherwise supported the field day.

Two trailers, a green one for cardboard – draped with a 25-year-old banner painted by AMS students, and a silver mesh one for aluminum cans (both from the recycling center) occupied the other side of the parking lot where we set up near Laing Lake. We also brought barrels, a collapsed gaylord box and other containers to show how the contents of two public recycling totes from a lot along Flack Avenue should be sorted. The demonstration never happened though it was still a great visual aid – especially for attendees or passersby who had no idea KAB (or maybe even recycling in our community) existed.

Plenty of volunteers joined several members of the KAB crew, including others from the Job Corps, a lady who heard about the field day and assisted in setting up as well as my son and daughter. Children took part in a range of activities in the field behind the disc golf sign. Spending more time than I should have inside with deep fat fryers and circuit breakers, I’m still confident we offered most of the games on the flyer.

Late spring and summer have meant inventive community festivals and celebrations in Alliance over the decades. Think of the concerts in the library rose garden or Bands on the Bricks. Heritage Days brought us firefighters battling to move a barrel on a wire and the infamous outhouse races, sidewalk sales, parades and Sunday in the Park, and the list goes on. Murals sprouted at Carhenge and around town in 2025. Keep Alliance Beautiful wants to join the list in a not so “flash in the pan” fashion. Maybe we will supply the materials for cardboard boat races as the mercury rises in 2027.

Fun and games offer an avenue to reach individuals who do not recycle and may not have strong opinions on environmental issues as we strive to “encourage people to reduce, reuse, and recycle every day to improve and beautify their community environment.”