57th annual Maple Leaf Festival activities bring families together

Oct. 21—CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Maple Leaf Festival is 57 this year and its band competition is 58, meaning both events have become a tradition for families in and around Carthage.

For some, the entire week of events has become a family tradition. For others, it's a specific part of the festival, whether it be the pageants the first weekend of Maple Leaf, the gospel sing in the middle of the week or the parade and band competition on the third Saturday of every October.

"Maple Leaf is probably my favorite time of year just because it's such a big deal in our family," said Claire Giett, a Carthage High School student and second runner-up at the queen pageant last weekend. "We have traditions that don't even involve what the city puts on in our family in connection with Maple Leaf. But the pageant and the lip sync competition and the band competition have always held big parts of my heart."

Kaylea Binney, first runner-up in the pageant, said she loves seeing her hometown come together for Maple Leaf.

"There are people from a lot of places around us that come together," Binney said. "It's an opportunity to meet new people, and the Maple Leaf Parade is one of my favorites just because you're seeing so many businesses and groups from different communities go through the parade, but you also see all these people from all over line the streets."

Breakfast tradition

Hundreds of Maple Leaf attendees got up before 7 a.m. Saturday and made their way to the fire station at Chestnut and Garrison avenues for the annual pancake feed.

For $8 a person, people took in a breakfast of pancakes, sausage and juice or water to fortify themselves for a long day of events.

"I've been doing this for as long as I can remember," said Joe LeMasters, a Carthage native who lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. "My dad would say, 'Hey, do you want to go to the fire station and have pancakes Saturday morning?' I remember doing it when I was my daughter's age of 7, and I remember doing it in high school, and I remember doing it after high school. ... So now I'm bringing my girl to the pancake feed."

LeMasters' daughter, June, was still trying to wake up but she told her dad, "The fire department has the best pancakes."

Josh Roberts, a Carthage firefighter, said the pancake feed was a chance for the entire fire department staff to get together and give back to the community.

"It brings a lot of people into the fire house and lets us all get together as a whole department," Roberts said. "Anyone who's been here very long is used to getting up at weird times of the day. And it's definitely worth it. It just gives us a sense of camaraderie and we also get to serve the community and people get to know us, too."

Parade tradition

Parade floats, bands and other entries started gathering as early as 6 a.m. to line up on the streets west and south of the Carthage square for the annual Maple Leaf Parade.

Carthage chamber President Julie Reams said 185 entries made up the parade of more than two hours.

The theme of the 2023 Maple Leaf Festival was "There's No Place Like Home," leading to a plethora of "Wizard of Oz"-themed floats and entries.

Destiny Corkle played the Scarecrow on Leggett & Platt's float, which featured a spinning tornado and other features. She also helped lead the effort to build the float.

"We started working on this float in June," she said. "We've got 90 cans of spray foam on this; we have 17 cans of spray paint. We have 12 bottles of acrylic paint and we went through 200 feet of crepe paper in the paper flowers. For us at Leggett & Platt, this represents the community of Carthage, and we love any opportunity to be part of the community and really just show that we're here to support them in any way. We have a longstanding tradition of showing up with a big old trailer."

Binney, Giett and the Maple Leaf Queen Maddison Crocker Scott kicked off the parade Saturday morning by singing the national anthem on the west side of the Carthage square.

A color guard of Carthage police officers led the parade on its nearly two-mile trek.

Family tradition

Shasta Moudy, a freshman at Missouri University of Science & Technology and a Carthage High School graduate, drove three hours from Rolla early this morning to be at her 19th Maple Leaf Festival.

"Maple Leaf is my absolute favorite time of year," Moudy said. "People ask what's my favorite holiday and I say Maple Leaf. I've been in everything from the pageants to the floats. I've done it all and so just making sure I come back every single year to make sure I never miss out on a Maple Leaf."

Moudy brought a friend this year, Tessa Higginbotham, from St. Charles, to see Carthage's tradition and Higginbotham was impressed.

"I think it's really cool; it's a really fun experience. I've never been to anything like this, not at all," she said. "It's a really cool tradition because it brings the whole community together."

Tractor show tradition

Another tradition is the gathering of antique tractors at the tractor and truck show in Central Park.

Lynn Thorn, rural Diamond, said he's been bringing his tractors to Carthage every third Saturday in October for 10 years.

This year Thorn brought his one of his newer tractors, a 1959 Farmall.

"All these people have these tractors and you've got to bring them out and show off what you have built," Thorn said. "Kids love tractors. I usually bring a smaller tractor so kids can get up on it but this year I brought a bigger one."

Don LeMasters, Joplin, said the tractor show is definitely a tradition for him.

"This is my hometown. I was raised on a farm and people like old tractors," LeMasters said. "So we're glad to get them out, let people look at them and talk to us about them."

Car show tradition

One of the biggest traditions of the festival is the car show, held annually for the past 43 years on the lawn of the Congregation of the Mother of the Redeemer at Grand and Fairview avenues.

Alan Bilke, president of the car show committee, said this year's event drew 521 classic vehicles and a huge crowd walking around to see them.

"It's a lot of cars," Bilke said. "The car show has become a tradition for me. I'd miss it if I didn't come. I think it's all about giving back to the community. We're all volunteers here and it's a big show. We want to keep it going and keep the history going."

Robert Russow, Carthage, showed off his 1961 Corvette on the lawn and had a good time talking to people about his car.

"I'd say the car show is probably the second biggest attraction at the festival," Russow said. "The people come from Kansas and Oklahoma, all over. You can see just about anything you want to here and it has become a tradition for me. You see a lot of people you haven't seen for a year sometimes. And there are a lot of nice comments on the cars."