Keller Fest notches another solid year
Each year, the City of Tuscumbia hosts an annual festival in honor of America’s first lady of courage, Helen Keller.
Aptly named the Helen Keller Festival, the event sees multiple days of concerts, events and vendors in Spring Park in the downtown area.
This year marked the 46th annual fest, and Lt. Mike Smallwood with Tuscumbia Police Department has worked to maintain public safety at 27 of those.
He said this year’s festival overall was great, with a good turnout and no problems.
“We made zero arrests this year,” Smallwood said. “That has not always been the case in the past. As far as public safety issues, it was great.”
Smallwood said he is in charge of setting up a command post for officers working festival security, maintaining equipment and coordinating a volunteer force of eight to 10 reserve officers.
“We respond to any medical calls, provide security, help give people rides up and down the hill in the park, that sort of thing,” he said. “The worst part was the heat. We did have two or three medical calls that were heat related.”
Smallwood said the car show on Saturday was packed, and the turnout for the concert series was high, especially on Saturday.
Though Keller Fest is a big event each year, Smallwood said he and others are happy to have this year’s rendition in the rearview mirror.
“It feels good to have it done,” he said. “It is very tiring and takes a lot of people to put on, but it’s worth it. You think about the courage Helen Keller had to overcome blindness and deafness and still be successful like she was. It encourages everyone.”
