The Duncan Banner

Local News

July 13, 2012

Velma weekends busy for rest of July

Joshua Kellogg The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Velma Mayor Shawn Enloe is excited for the three weekends of events planned which will keep the town busy and hopping with activity.

Starting on Saturday with the Mayor’s 5k Road Race, the events continue with the inaugural Velma Mayor’s “Mower Madness” on Saturday, July 21 and ending with the annual 122nd Old Settlers’ Picnic, starting on July 25 and ending on July 28. There will be plenty of events for the residents and visitors for the town, Enloe said.

“When we heard the (picnic) organizers were settling on the last weekend, we decided to stagger the events through out the month to give people multiple chances to visit,” Enloe said.

This will be the second year for the Mayor’s 5K Road Race and 1 Mile Run and following the death of Velma teen Braylee Henry in June, the race was renamed to include “Remembering Braylee Henry” as a memorial in her honor.

Proceeds from the race will be donated to the Velma-Alma cross country team and Enloe expects the turnout this year to be greater than last year.

“We expected about 40 to 50 entries last year and ended up with around 150 showing up,” Enloe said. “We are seeing interest of at least 200 people just based upon the Facebook group.”

Registration for the race begins at 6 a.m. at the Velma-Alma High School Track with the race beginning at 7:30 a.m., the time was moved up in order to account for summer temperatures.

For more information on the race, call Jerry Loveall at 580-444-2450.

On the following weekend, the First Annual Velma Mayor’s “Mower Madness” is set to take place at the Tera Keenan Memorial Sports Complex, 1/2 mile north of State Highway 7 on S&W Rd. and all proceeds will benefit the Velma Youth Association.

Events start at 5 p.m. with a gate charge per car to enter.

The event will have lawnmower races, frog jumping contests and terrapin turtle races for the children. An area band will be performing before the fireworks scheduled for 30 minutes after dark.

The Velma Volunteer Fire Department will have hamburgers and drinks for sale at the event.

The town decided to wait to launch their fireworks and have them during the Mower Madness since both Marlow and Comanche had Fourth of July celebrations.

“Some counties are under a burn ban but we are still looking at launching fireworks on the 21st,” Enloe said.

The month of July ends with the 122nd annual Old Settler’s Picnic and many rodeo and ranch rodeo events set for the four day event.

Steer tripping and bronc riding are some of other events spread across the event, which include a parade that starts at 11 a.m. July 28, followed by the rodeo continuing in the afternoon.

“We will have three weeks of influx of people coming to town and it’ll be busy for us but if things go pretty smooth, we might do this every year,” Enloe said. “I hear people are coming out for the lawnmower races and staying until the picnic.”

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