Cottey picnic to be held indoors this year

Nevada Daily Mail

The city of Nevada is guaranteeing that weather for the annual Cottey Welcome Back Picnic on Aug. 21, will be in the 70's and it will not be raining -- at least if the air conditioning in the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center is working and the roof does not spring a leak.

That's right, for the first time the annual event, which is jointly sponsored by the chamber of commerce, the tourism committee and the city of Nevada, will be held inside the community center.

Nevada-Vernon County Chamber of Commerce director Cat McGrath-Farmer told the IMPACT Tourism committee Tuesday that they have a good response from the vendors and organizations that are planning to set-up exhibits for the picnic.

Some have even said they will come since it is inside, she told the committee.

"We've been getting pretty good response," McGrath-Farmer said.

However, she said that they are still looking for partners to represent the various churches, civic organizations and area businesses at the picnic.

"We often get calls from the families of Cottey students wanting to know things like where they can get a cake from or flowers delivered -- questions about other local services," she said.

"This year, the student body at Cottey will have students from 40 states, including Alaska," Judy Rogers, Ph.D., tourism committee member and Cottey College president, said.

The IMPACT Nevada Tourism committee sets aside $2,000 each year to help pay for the picnic.

April Transue, one of the two part-time tourism coordinators, told the board that Dale Moore, the owner of the 30-foot morel mushroom north of Nevada had agreed to let the tourism committee use his mushroom as an attraction.

"We've had people ask about having their picture taken with the mushroom," Transue said.

"He did a flyer with instructions on how to get to the mushroom for photograph. He's very excited about us promoting his world's largest morel mushroom," she said.

Transhue said that she is getting in touch with the Guinness Book of World Records to see about getting it certified as the world's largest morel mushroom.

She also told the board that she is working on developing several tours in the area for visitors.

One tour she said that is in the works will be a haunted tour this October with people dressed in appropriate costumes at each stop.

While she already has a number of locations that are possibly haunted, she is still interested in learning of other sites.

She said that Chris Thomas, the second part-time tourism coordinator is reworking the historic homes tour.

Other tours she is considering are a healing waters tour, that would include Radio Springs, El Dorado Springs and Jerico Springs, as well as other locations and a Civil War tour that would include sites in the Nevada area, including Fort Scott, Kan.

Transue told the board that she is also working on a promotion with the Missouri Department of Tourism. They pick one town on the third Thursday of the month and promote that town.

She said that she is working on a package for them to promote in Nevada, that currently includes a room for two at the Country Inn, dinner for two at the Cherry Street Grill, a gift basket from the chamber of commerce and possibly a tour by Terry Ramsey.