Kalona Days start early this year

KALONA — For this first time in decades, the annual Kalona Days celebration will start on a Friday this week, and will take up more than one day, as the name implies.

“At one point in time, Kalona Days — the plural — was a real thing,” Kalona Chamber of Commerce Director Tonia Poole said. “It actually was so long ago that I’m not even quite sure what they did in between those two days.”

This year, Poole said multiday programming would give people more time to enjoy the town.

“It’s so much fun … it’s great activities during the day, but it’s kind of nice to have that relaxing part lead up to it,” she said. “There’s so much activity and stuff happening on Saturday that if they come in on Friday, they can really relax and do some shopping and check out the restaurants and do some things that they might be a bit busy on Saturday to enjoy.”

The agenda for the event has some major changes as well, with several new and returning events that haven’t been featured in a long time. Highlights include a photo contest, kids petal pull, fire department water activities, and a pie-baking contest and auction.

“It’s been well over 15 years since we’ve had the pie-baking contest, and we’ve never done an auction before,” Poole said. “We’ve got a panel of judges that are going to judge the pies that come in, and then at noon we’ve got an auctioneer that will come in.”

Poole said she was excited for the annual festivities.

“It brings everybody together, it doesn’t matter what age you are, what your interests are, it’s such a widespread event,” she said. “You can’t help but see other friends, family, neighbors, people out and together, enjoying the nature of our town.”

Kalona Days stands out from other events in one major way: it’s free of charge.

“A lot of times there are some really fun things to do, but you need to pay,” Poole said. “Because of community support, pretty much everything is free, the only thing that costs is the fun run, and other activities are all on the house … there’s so many different things, people together in different ways, and I appreciate that so much. We couldn’t do it without all of the hands coming together.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com