WILTON – Twenty-five years of blueberries is the theme for the weekend Blueberry Festival, the 25th anniversary of the tradition.

The event has grown from the Wilton Congregational Church’s one-day blueberry bazaar to a two-day social that offers a chance for people to get involved in 80 planned activities and promises fun for everyone, said festival organizer Shannon Smith on Monday.

“It’s like an old-home weekend,” she said, “you meet friends you haven’t met for a while.”

After being asked to organize the Lions Club parade in 1990, Smith said, she realized there was more that could be offered and she began what has become an almost full-time job. The parade and bazaar were combined, she said, and for the past 17 years, she has kept adding events.

Smith says she’s found plenty of ideas on the Web, though some of them have taken time and patience, like the traveling Vietnam Wall memorial, which took five or six years to bring to Wilton.

“I’m still asking the Clydesdales to come and I’ll keep asking,” she said.

She tries to find something new and different by attending other events, such as Kingfield Days, where she recruits new vendors and crafters for the festival.

For Smith, changes over the years have made it a lot more work but she’s met some wonderful people, she said. The friendships have been the best part. The worst part, she said, is having something go wrong and having to go to Plan B.

“There’s a lot of little details,” she explained as her phone rang with questions about the parade that boasts 93 entries this year, or about the 90 vendors and crafters to be at the Nichols Expo to go with the 50 set up along Main Street on both days.

The community will benefit from the festival as locals and tourists find their way to Wilton. The mayor of Wilton, Iowa, plans to attend, she said, and every motel in Franklin County is full. All the Kora Temple Shriners, 23 units, will be in Wilton this weekend.

The Army Band will be back this year, she said, and entertainment is planned throughout both days at the Nichols Expo.

A new feature this year has required a need for more volunteers, she said. Large character puppets from the Shoe String Theater Puppets have been hired to participate in the parade. Only she didn’t realize she’d have to supply her own people to carry them. Teenage and adult volunteers are needed from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday and anyone interested is asked to contact her at 778-4726.

The chili and blueberry cook-offs are expected to be popular, she said, as she’s received several calls about them. Entries for either will be accepted until 1 p.m. Saturday at the Expo. The chili tasting contest begins at 1:30 p.m. To get more children involved, she said, contest classes for ages 15-and-under have been added.

The parade and fireworks highlight the festivities with the only possible change being a move for the fireworks to Sunday if it rains, otherwise everything goes, she said.

Within the past few years, the festival became incorporated with a board of directors running the $35,000-to-$40,000 operation, she said.

“Everyone in town, from the manager to the police, fire and highway departments all work together as a team to make this all happen,” she said.

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