This time around, Mother Nature cooperated quite nicely so the Community Day event could be held at Frankfort/Clinton County Airport.
The event was originally scheduled for July 15. But, stormy weather plus several other circumstances postponed the event to Saturday. The early morning fog burned off by 9 a.m. so all things involving aeronautics could take place as planned.
“We’ve had a great day here at Community Day,” said Clinton County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shan Sheridan. “Normally, we do this in the summer. But we had to change that this year because of inclement weather that happened back in July. So we move it to September 30. It did change some of the logistics.”
Sheridan added the weather was a tremendous plus for main events.
“The weather has really cooperated,” said Sheridan. “It’s been fantastic for the skydivers. They’re going to make over 50 runs today. It’s pretty amazing who that happens. To see the U.S. flag is awesome as well.”
The main feature was the PBY, flown by Adrian Marks in World War II, who saved the lives of 56 sailors in shark infested waters after the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. The other c0-feature was the WWII Flying Boat — BT 13.
Other events during the day was a pancake breakfast, fire truck display, flight simulator, bounce houses along with local retail and shopping and a helicopter candy drop.
“The PBY was the main attraction,” said Sheridan. “We’ve had some great attendance. We had over 400 for breakfast. We’ve had a lot of people come in to look at the PBY. We’re going to be sitting at 800 today, maybe close to a thousand.”
Sheridan was asked what exactly is Community Day.
“It’s about the people of Clinton County and all the surrounding areas,” said Sheridan. “We’ve got people here from Tippecanoe County, we got people here from Carroll County, Tipton County who have come today. So, it’s really about people and building those relationships. Giving people something free to do. I know the airplane rides cost.”
Sheridan added they hope to get back to their regular schedule next year so they can have this event in July as a precursor to the Hot Dog Festival on the last weekend of the month.