BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The group that is organizing Keystone Heights’s 100th-year anniversary celebration continued to plan for the yearlong 2025 event,
Friends of Keystone Heights, FL. Inc. chair Ginger Lee said that her organization has focused on merchandising and fundraising up to this point.
“We accomplished getting our raffle ticket sales together,” Lee said of the group’s Thursday, August 15 meeting. “We’ve been starting to sell at pop-up events at (Bryan’s Ace Hardware). We have three future pop-up events scheduled. We have August 24th, September 7th, and September 14th. We’ll be selling shirts, calendars, our new challenge coins that are coming out, and our raffle tickets for the grill that will be donated by Ace Hardware.”
The $25 raffle ticket is for an outdoor grill valued at $1,017. The prize will be drawn on October 31.
One committee member reported on the group’s first pop-up sales event at Ace. She said foot traffic was brisk due to Hurricane Debby approaching Florida’s Big Bend from the Gulf of Mexico.
“Unfortunately, it was Saturday before the hurricane, and everybody was there with their propane tanks, getting a lot of supplies,” the committee member said. “We had a lot of interest, but people had other things on their minds.”
She added that the group sold 10 raffle tickets and four T-shirts and accepted a $10 donation.
Lee also said the group continues to develop the Centennial’s first major event, which will occur in 2024 instead of 2025.
“We have the December 28th (event), which is going to be our kickoff event,” she said. “It will be at the airport, and it will be from nine to three for family entertainment, and then we have from five to nine a gala, for which we will be selling tickets.”
Lee said the band “Duval County Line” will headline the gala. She added that the kickoff will also highlight local cuisine with a feature called a “Taste of Keystone,” in which Lake Region restaurants will offer a variety of Keystone-area fare.
During the August 15 meeting, committee members also discussed partnering with Clay County’s Tourism Department to promote its events and asking the City of Keystone Heights for financial support.
