Editor, OBSERVER:
This year's Busti Apple Harvest Festival displayed the culmination of 40 years of work.
The society was formed in 1972 in order to assist in the Busti Grist Mill restoration project started a few years earlier by the Busti Shamrocks 4-H Club and in particular, three girls: Louise Carlson, Diane Pangborn, and Mary Sienkiewics. At the Festival this year, hundreds of people streamed through the Mill and saw the partially reconstructed machinery actually running.
In addition to this, we presented all the regular attractions and displays people expect at the festival.
We are glad to have an opportunity to publicly thank all the organizations, businesses, and individuals, members, and friends who helped us prepare for and put on the Festival.
We especially appreciate the assistance of the Busti Fire Department which collects and manages the admission and opens its grounds for parking. The Lakewood Kiwanis, as for many years past, moved our pies in and out for fresh baking and manned one of our main food outlets. The Mount Moriah Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons also manned a food outlet plus handled the entire cheese and soup operation. The Lakewood-Busti police handled the monumental traffic flow and allowed us use of a road, and the members of the Town Board handled the cider sales.
We appreciate the favorable consideration given us by local media outlets, particularly WDOE, the Post-Journal and the Dunkirk OBSERVER, and also the weekly publications. Special thanks to Dave Rowley at WDOE and to several reporters at each of the newspapers.
Thanks also to the many members, volunteers, and personal friends who responded to the need and contributed in a multitude of ways.
We are planning for a special celebration in the spring when we will have the Mill machinery completed. We will also be holding our December member dinner, our regular monthly business meetings with programs starting again in March, the Town Picnic, and of course the 36th Apple Harvest Festival on Sept. 29. We have already put in dozens of man hours preparing for the 2013 Festival.
More major work will be done on the miller house and we may organize other special events or trips. Membership is open to all. Everyone is welcome at our meetings and programs.
NORMAN CARLSON,
Jamestown
