How to go
What: Bellbrook Lions Club Festival
Where: Former Sugarcreek Elementary School, 51 S. East St., Bellbrook
When: Aug. 20-22; 6-11 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 5-11 p.m. on Saturday, following the 4 p.m. parade.
Cost: Free admission. Rides can be paid for on a per ticket basis or a wristband can be bought for $20 for unlimited rides for the evening.
More info: www.bellbrooklions.org
Once a year the Bellbrook Lions Club hosts a festival to raise funds to support the charitable and community activities it is involved in throughout the year.
The Bellbrook Lions Club Festival will take place Aug. 20-22 on the grounds of the old Sugarcreek Elementary School at 51 S. East St. in Bellbrook, one block east and one block south of the middle of downtown Bellbrook.
“Visitors to the festival can expect to find an old-fashion, small town, family-oriented festival with games, rides and food,” said Kirk Barrett, a club member for 15 years and the current president of the 65-member club.
“Membership in this club is a way to give back to a great community that has provided myself and my family an ideal place to live,” he said, noting that the club was founded in 1946 and the festival was started a couple of years later.
It features such things as children’s and adult games, carnival rides and food each day and on Saturday there will be a parade and car show.
“We serve full meals under the big food tent; pork chops on Thursday, catfish on Friday and barbecue chicken on Saturday. Those are the featured meals with other selections also available. A full adult meal with drink and dessert runs about $11-$12,” Barrett said, adding that there will also be food trailers available with such favorites as funnel cakes.
He describes the festival as “a piece of small town Americana.”
The festival will close at 11 p.m. Saturday night, following the drawing of names for $10,000 in prizes.
All of the proceeds from the festival are used for the Bellbrook Lion’s Club’s community and charitable activities.
A major focus of Lions Club International, of which the Bellbrook Lions Club is a member, is helping eradicate blindness worldwide with such programs as Pilot Dogs and the Central Ohio Lions Eye Bank located at Ohio State University.
The club’s men and women also identify needs within the community and work together to fulfill those needs, including helping with local and nation-wide disaster relief efforts, helping community members and organizations with special needs and sponsoring youth baseball, softball and basketball programs.
More information on the Bellbrook Lions Club, and the many projects it is involved in, is available online at www.bellbrooklions.org.
About the Author