GENTRY — The Gentry Freedom Festival will be observed on Saturday, July 3rd, this year, with a day filled with activities and entertainment in the Gentry City Park. Following are a few of the activities planned for Saturday:

◊Co-ed softball tournament games will be played all day at ball diamonds in the city park. (Correction: No ball games will be played at the McKee Foods ball diamonds this year, as mistakenlystated in the special section on the Freedom Festival included in this issue.)

◊Tired Iron of the Ozarks will show old tractors, trucks and engines throughout the day in the park. They will offer rides in the park and on Main Street on tractor-pulled wagons.

◊A car show will again be held at the northwest side of the park, near the large trees. Registration begins at 9 a.m. with judging to follow.

◊Food booths, arts and crafts booths and games open at noon.

◊ Inflatable rides, including a slide, castle, bounce around and climbing wall will be set up in the park. Arm bands, at a cost of $10 each, will allow children unlimited passage on the rides throughout the daytime and evening hours.

◊Camel rides and a petting zoo will be available in the park throughout the day. They are provided by the Wild Wilderness Safari, located just north of Gentry.

◊Stage One Entertainment, featuring local singer Kaylin Cripps, will be on stage performing gospel music at 3 p.m. The group of young, local singers will take the stage again at 5 p.m. to perform a variety of entertaining music.

◊Skydivers from Skydive Skyranch will drop into the park under canopy chutes from a mile or two above at 4 and 6 p.m.

◊The Little Miss and Mister Gentry Pageants will take place on the stage at 4:30 p.m.

◊The Flint Hills Ramblers will perform a variety of bluegrass music on stage at 6:45 p.m. The wellknown group is made up of local singers and musicians from theGentry and Colcord, Okla., area.

◊Earl’s Garage Band, featuring local artists Alan Lamb and Kevin Bonner, will be performing from 8 p.m. until dusk. The group features a wide variety of southern soul music.

◊The finale of the evening will be the fireworks display at dusk. The display will be the largest ever held in Gentry. The Gentry Fire Department will coordinate the event and ignite the fireworks.

By city ordinance, no dogs are allowed in the park during the Freedom Fest celebration.

News, Pages 1 on 06/30/2010