Around Town: Middletown Days Returns With Parade, Rodeo Events and Community Fundraisers

Summary: Middletown Days returns June 19 to 21 with three days of events in and around Central Park, including a western roping contest, Saturday parade, barbecue lunch, live music, contests and Father’s Day breakfast. This year’s theme is “Celebrating 250 Years of the Red, White & Blue,” with Grant and Ross Hardester of Hardester’s Markets serving as grand marshals. The event also honors 96-year-old Hal Webber of Perry’s Deli with the Pioneer Award. Proceeds support Middletown Central Park and Arena and the Middletown Lions Club, two volunteer organizations that fund park maintenance, scholarships and community programs.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The events calendar and countdown clock on the Middletown Central Park Association’s website remind locals that Middletown Days will return in just a few days — June 19 to 21 — this year with the theme “Celebrating 250 Years of the Red, White & Blue.” The event will open on Friday evening with the old-timey fun of a western roping contest at 6 p.m. in Middletown’s Central Park with two roping categories for ages 7 and under and 7 and over.

The annual parade will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday. This is where you can meet your neighbors and enjoy the sights as horses, floats and classic cars move by. Clowns will be there, too, tossing candy and blowing bubbles along Middletown’s main street on Highway 29 along the parade route. You’ll also hear the announcer congratulate the parade’s grand marshals, Grant and Ross Hardester of Hardester’s Markets.

Hardester’s is a family-run chain of markets in Middletown, Cobb and Hidden Valley that started out with groceries and hardware in 1943. Known as “The Corner Store,” these community-minded family-run markets have been lending support to myriad projects and events for more than 75 years.

According to Tucker Chorjel, a Middletown Days coordinator, this year’s Pioneer Award will go to 96-year-old Hal Webber of Perry’s Deli at 21308 Calistoga Road, “home of the best sandwiches in Lake County” as well as breakfast and catering from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Webber has owned around 20 Perry’s Delicatessens, including stores in Napa, Sonoma and the Sierra Nevada regions. The one in Middletown has been a three-generations family-owned business for 33 years.

After the parade a barbeque lunch will be served in the park at 1 p.m. Entertainment to follow includes a cornhole tournament and line-dancing at 1 p.m. Other events will include parade awards, vendor booths, non-horse events for younger children in the arena, the cutest cowboy and cowgirl contest, a live band and dancing on the Obie Sanders Stage. Proceeds go to Middletown’s Central Park and Arena and the Middletown Lions Club.

“While this event is sponsored and made possible by the Middletown Central Park Association, a group of community minded volunteers work to raise funds for Park maintenance, improvements and overhead and have done so for 64 years,” says the Middletown Days website. “It is important to note that this event is also a major fundraiser for the Middletown Lions Club, also a volunteer service organization whose main focus is community service and support located at15399 Central Park Road, Middletown, CA. The Middletown Lions Club has an outside bar at Central Park open all day Saturday and during the dance and a partial day on Sunday.”

On Sunday, head back over to Central Park for the 8 to 11 a.m. Lions Club Father’s Day Breakfast in the Lions Building. More events follow, such as Cowboy Church, a horseshoe tournament at 11 a.m., Gymkhana at noon with 11 a.m. sign-ins, a Hide and Rescue Race at dusk and the Queen and Princess Raffle.

Lion’s Club members invite the public to come and support the Middletown Lions Club, which gave five scholarships to Middletown graduates at $1,000 each this year. They also have a free prescription eyeglass program for which applications can be made through the club. They host a free annual community Halloween Carnival and collaborate with the Middletown Central Park Association to maintain the children’s playground and structures on park property behind the Lions Building. The facility, which is used daily by numerous families, is available for the community to rent at a reasonable rate. There is no charge if the building is used for a memorial celebration of life.

All of the funds the club raises are used for improvements, maintenance and overhead for the building as well as to fund scholarships and other community needs. They are currently making cosmetic improvements to the building. Both of these all-volunteer nonprofit organizations are committed to community service for everyone to enjoy.

The Middletown Central Park is located at 15299 Central Park Road.

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Kathleen Scavone, M.A., retired educator, is a potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora and Fauna Tour of a California State Park,” “People of the Water” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She loves hiking, travel, photography and creating her single-panel cartoon, “Rupert.”

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