![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC00477-683x1024.jpg\")
Long added that new to the festival this year was the craft show. She and the club were excited to offer it to festival goers and hope that it will be an even bigger success in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe knew that it would start out small. But we hope over the years it will grow,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, after over two decades with the event, Long said she was glad to be able to welcome it back for another year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been with the event for 22 years,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Kiwanis club took over the event in 2003. All of it coming together is kind of a miracle, quite honestly. After COVID, we had a 2-year lull, and we sort of had to go dormant. But last year we had a new event with the steak cook-off. The Steak Cook-Off Association came in and we had that along with the carnival.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also added that the festival is a labor of love for her and her fellow club members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI call her my partner in crime. Jeannie Bates and I have worked together on it for years and years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe started out helping our husbands cook. Then we got this bright idea that we didn\u2019t want to do that because we were doing a lot of the work. We then decided that we would go into the judging classes. Then the other organization that had the event didn\u2019t have a lot of volunteers, and they gave it to us because we were the only ones who knew anything about barbecue. And over the years Jeannie and I have just sort of drug other members in, teaching them and trying to keep for the community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the festival continues to grow, Long invites members of the community to come out and volunteer. She and her fellow club members hope to see the event carry on for years to come and continue to raise funds for those in need in Franklin County. GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE ANNUAL High on the Hog Festival welcomed the summer festival season. For the past 35 years the festival has been welcoming locals and visitors alike with seven days worth of events that all do one important thing: raise money for local charities in Franklin County. This year the event included a backyard barbecue challenge, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC00417-1-1024x683.jpg\")