Barn quilt fest equals town pride squared
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Flea market shoppers examine merchandise Saturday during the third annual Barn Quilt City Festival in Hopkins. The festival is hosted by Hopkins Community Betterment, which recently completed a new half-mile walking trail and a new fence around the baseball and football fields at the Hopkins city park.
Much of the tiny north Nodaway County community of Hopkins turned out over the weekend for the third annual Barn Quilt City Festival, a celebration of town pride that seems to grow a little bit more popular each year.
For the first time, the 2017 festival stretched over two days, beginning on Saturday morning and concluding at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Sponsored by Hopkins Community Betterment with additional support provided by the J.L. Houston Co. and Spalding Insurance, the event serves both to spotlight the accomplishments and goals of HCB and draw attention to the Hopkins Barn Quilt Trail.
The trail consists of more than 100 paintings displayed on homes, barns and outbuildings in and around Hopkins featuring patterns resembling traditional quilt squares.
Hopkins resident Sandi Lawson adapted the barn quilt idea from a similar project begun about 15 years ago in Adams County, Ohio.
Since then quilt trails have sprung up in a large number of states, including Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
So far, however, Hopkins appears to be the only community to have designated itself “Barn Quilt City, U.S.A.”
Lawson has been painting the squares, most of which are rendered on 2-foot-by-2-foot or 4-by-4 pieces of plywood, for anyone in the Hopkins area who wants one. She volunteers her time and artistic talent, and the cost of paint and materials is generally covered by Hopkins Community Betterment. There is a charge, however, for squares larger than 4 feet.
The initiative has proved popular, and barn quilt squares appear in at least a couple of places along almost every street in town. More than 30 new squares have been added to the trail over the past year.
“We’re still putting them up,” Hopkins Community Betterment President Lorrie Schatz said Saturday.
The following afternoon, flatbed wagons pulled by teams of horses and mules transported festivalgoers during brief tours of the trail that began and ended at the city park, the site of this year’s celebration, which also included food vendors, flea market stalls and craft booths.
Sunday also offered dedication ceremonies for a new half-mile park walking trail and recently completed security fencing around the park’s baseball diamond and football field, which are used by North Nodaway R-VI School District athletics programs.
Completed at a cost of more than $40,000, both projects were spearheaded by Hopkins Community Betterment, which raised money through grants, donations from businesses and individuals and a series of fundraisers.
Major contributors included the Gladys M. Rickard Charitable Trust, the Gary G. Taylor Charitable Trust, the Harry and Helena Messick Charitable Trust and the Dugdale Charitable Trust Fund.
Donna Spalding, retired head of Spalding Insurance and one of a core group of HCB leaders, said initiatives like the festival and barn quilt trail play an important role in an era when many rural communities are struggling to survive.
“It helps beautify the city and foster community pride,” she said. “We’re trying to ‘keep the hop in Hopkins.’”
While Hopkins has declined considerably since its late 19th and early 20th century heyday, it is more fortunate than many similar northwest Missouri towns in that it is the home of a couple successful businesses, notably River Valley Agriculture and tank manufacturer J.L. Houston Co.
There is also a body shop, grocery store, convenience store and a couple of other small businesses.
“We’re blessed to have several larger businesses in town and a good school,” said Spalding, who added that she sees Hopkins as more than the beneficiary of relative economic good luck.
“It’s a caring community that works together,” she said. “People who grew up in Hopkins are loyal to Hopkins.”
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
A “barn quilt” square and an American flag decorate this small residence in Hopkins. The north Nodaway County community has designated itself “Barn Quilt City, U.S.A.” in an effort to draw tourism and boost community pride.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
As is the case with several buildings in downtown Hopkins, the Roxy Center performance space, a former movie theater, boasts a painted “barn quilt” square. The Roxy’s square features representations of theater masks used in ancient Greece to personify the concepts of tragedy and comedy.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
A “barn quilt” square consisting of a checkered flag surrounding the image of a NASCAR-style race car decorates a small shed on a residential street in Hopkins. More than 100 such squares have been attached to homes, businesses and outbuildings in and around the north-county community, which over the weekend celebrated its third annual Barn Quilt City Festival.
