Events have a big impact on communities

There is a lot going on in Medford and all of Taylor County throughout the year. Visitors to the area often mockingly refer to the area as aspiring to be in Hallmark Movies, referencing the trope of perpetual small town festivals serving as plot devices in cheesy romance movies.

Sometimes it is good thing to embrace a trope or two.

Festivals, fairs, celebrations and events serve important and vital roles in the cultural and economic health of communities.

On a cultural level, they celebrate and reinforce the values and traditions of the community. For example, events like the Back in Time Antique Tractor Show celebrates the agricultural heritage and roots in the area, while others such as Grass on the Black, the Kiwanis Summer Concert Series and Parkfest help build and strengthen bonds of community through shared appreciation of live music. Other events such as Rumblefest provide an outlet for auto enthusiasts and allow people to share their hobbies and passions. All of these events serve to bring people together and to reinforce shared bonds and build connections.

These connections serve to make our communities stronger. There is a tendency for people to get tunnel vision and focus on those things that directly impact themselves and their families. Even in their workplaces they remain safely in their silo, doing their job and going home at the end of the day.

Events, and especially getting involved in organizing and running them, break people out of their solitary silos and allow them to gain a greater appreciation of the many moving parts that make any community function. This web of interconnectivity is essential to have in place. It brings cohesiveness and understanding, which is essential in times when disasters or crisis hits the community. It is much easier to offer to lend a hand or help carry a load when you know that it will be accepted and wanted.

Beyond the many cultural and societal benefits of community events, there is an important economic benefit of festivals and events.

Much like in the folk tale “Stone Soup” where the stone soup becomes bountiful and rich and enough for all to share through people coming forward with their ingredients kept stored away, special events allow people to make something greater than the sum of its parts through their own small contributions and spending.

Money is only valuable when it is moving in a community. The dollar paid to a performer is spent at a local restaurant buying lunch or the motel owner for the room for a night. These recipients in turn spend the money buying groceries or fuel for the car. The economic principle of the multiplier effect shows that every dollar spent in a community has five dollars of impact. This is beyond the ongoing benefits to the community from the money raised by the organizing groups. The Rib Lake Lions, for example, have been able to give tens of thousands of dollars back to their community in recent years only because of people buying burgers and brats at Ice Age Days.

Taylor County has an abundance of community events. At times, it can be argued that there are too many, especially on busy summer weekends when there are a half-dozen events going on around the county. While it can sometimes feel that there is an overload, the summertime events that fill each weekend serve as important drivers to make our communities stronger, not only culturally, but economically.