Coming into this year’s Algona Days celebration, Mayor David Hill had doubts about the feasibility of the city continuing to run its annual community showcase event.

In fact, in the July issue of the city’s newsletter, The Town Crier, Hill stated that unless more volunteers stepped forward, this year’s event would be the last.

“We were having a struggle trying to arrange and put the whole thing together,” he said.

The rumors of the demise of the Algona Days celebration however appear to have been premature.

According to Hill, after publication of the newsletter, more volunteers stepped forward to help, not only with this year’s event but also with next year’s.

“After that went out in the newsletter we had five volunteers come in and work hard to get this one done,” Hill said. “And we have commitments from people for next year. We will have a lot of help next year, especially after people found out we needed it.”

Judging from this year’s Algona Days celebration, which took place this past weekend, the celebration is on the upswing.

“It went very well,” Hill said. “We don’t do a (head) count because it’s just too hard, but I know that we had 90 cars in the car show and the food vendors did very well.”

Reaction to the festival, which featured vendors, car show, parade and lawnmower races, was all positive according to Hill.

“It was very positive, everybody enjoyed it I think,” he said. “We had two days of activities, lots of family activities and lots of kids. It’s aimed towards kids. That’s based on the fact that a third of Algona is 18 and younger.”

Algona resident Chip Myers took advantage of the celebration to host a barbecue for friends from other communities in the Puget Sound.

Myers said he hoped to see the festival continue.

“It’s kind of depressing that this might be the last one,” he said. “But that’s how it goes with the state of the economy. Hopefully, it’ll be back. The town isn’t going anywhere.”

He added that he’d be more than willing to volunteer with next year’s event.

“I didn’t know about it until a couple of days ago, otherwise I’d have volunteered to help out,” Myers said.

According to Hill, next year’s festival should go smoothly and require less of his time.

“We’ve already got a volunteer promotion person for next year,” Hill said. “It’s so difficult for me to run the city and be a promoter and manager (for Algona Days). If we get someone willing to do that, it’d really help.”

Hill added that he thought it was important for the community unity of the City of the Great Blue Heron to host Algona Days every year.

“I think it’s important to the community in order to bring the community together,” he said. “They enjoy themselves and get to see everybody and enjoy everybody’s company.”

And there is always the pie-eating contest, which Hill said had 14 entrants this year, including a couple of father-son teams.

But don’t expect him to be participating in the contest any time soon, he said.

“Oh no, I have a beard,” he said. “If I did it, I’d still be eating pie today.”