Another Nibroc celebration is in the books, and it was a good one as usual.
While temperatures were warm this year, it wasn’t scorching hot. Overall, the weather cooperated to help make for a great festival again this year.
Whether it was musical acts, good food, carnival rides or various sporting events, such as the volleyball and pickleball tournaments, this year’s festival truly had a little something for everyone.
Kudos to the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, its Executive Director Bruce Carpenter, tourism, the downtown program, police, fire, public works, sanitation, the street department and numerous departments and people too numerous to name for a job well done.
Most people don’t realize all the work it takes by numerous people to organize something like the Nibroc festival, or any of other events for that matter, such as the Whitley County Fair, Old Fashioned Trading Days, Colonelfest, Octoberfest, car shows, 5-K races, Kayaking for Kids and so forth. Months of planning go into something like Nibroc. It is not quite year-round, but it is close to it.
Aside from the stage still sitting on Main Street when I got into the office at 9:15 a.m. Sunday, you never would have guessed that a festival had taken place.
A special thanks to Corbin public works and sanitation for all the work that they put in helping get the streets clean after the festival in addition to the Whitley County Detention Center’s work release inmate crew that also helped and was out there Sunday morning too.
Speaking of events, the Ninth Annual Kayaking for Kids took place down around Williamsburg Saturday morning. Dozens of people turned out to kayak along the Cumberland River to raise money for Upward basketball programs in Corbin and Williamsburg in addition to helping local school resource centers with funding. Each year thousands of dollars are raised.
Kayaking for Kids is another event that takes months to plan each year, and I am very glad that the Whitley County Fiscal Court and Whitley County Tourism among others got together to organize this nearly a decade ago.
The Cumberland River, Cumberland Falls and Laurel Lake are among the many outdoor assets we have that can bring tourism to Whitley County and the surrounding area.
Tourism dollars turn over several times in the community, and adventure tourism, such as kayaking, is something that the area needs to better promote.
Fortunately, Whitley County officials have added river access points the last decade at the Whitley County Fairgrounds, Croley Bend and Ballard Ford where people can put kayaks into and out of the water for what can range from a couple of hours to all-day fun along the Cumberland River depending on how much kayaking you want to do. There is also the First Street boat ramp in Williamsburg and the boat ramp at Red Bird near the trash gate in the Canadatown area.
If you are out there and into kayaking, the Cumberland River is apparently a great place to take a trip. The folks over at Sheltowee Trace can also set you up with kayak rentals for anyone, who wants to try it out some day.
Now to touch on one other topic before I conclude this column.
I think I was in college or had just started my career in journalism full-time a few decades back when I was listening to a DJ on the radio talk a music industry announcement that it had come up with a some supposedly fool-proof way to keep people from copying music. I think it had to do with CDs. I don’t remember the amount, but the music industry spent a bloody fortune to come up with it.
Why I remember this is that the DJ then talked about how long it took some teenagers to figure out how to defeat this new anti-copying technology with a Sharpe. I want to say it was something like four hours.
This analogy came to mind as I was having a conversation with our reporter Leeann Fragosa about her story last week on efforts by Corbin High School to limit student cellphone use by requiring students to place their cellphones in locked Yondr pouches while in school. The post about it on our Facebook page drew more than 200 responses at last count Sunday.
I will say just two things on the pouch effort, as Leeann is writing a column about it this week.
First, I think it is very well intentioned on the part of high school administrators to try and remove distractions from the classroom. Let’s face it, cell phones can definitely be a distraction. (I speak from experience. My wonderful wife, Cecelia, accuses me of being distracted by mine every day…LOL.)
Second, I will be curious to see just how long that it takes teenagers to figure out a way around this like they did years ago with that anti-copying music technology.
