Editor, Gazette-Journal:

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the 2013 Guinea Jubilee Committee for all of their hard work and dedication!

Putting on a festival of this magnitude takes a tremendous amount of volunteer hours. We start around January each year with preparations for our scholarship process and art contest. By June, we have chosen our scholarship winners and art contest winners and are working on a reception to spotlight all of our artists and their entries. Moving into early September, we host an Unveiling to introduce the new year’s grand marshal and print contest winner and to display our new T-shirt design and new sale items for the festival. This year, we added our first annual Lil’ Darlins’ Pageant to the Unveiling festivities. And the last Friday and Saturday of September, we host 18,000-20,000 people at the Abingdon Ruritan Club festival grounds for the Guinea Jubilee. Needless to say, there are times when it feels ...