Public events in Mathews on Saturday will include fun stuff of the present, a fall festival for Instagram photos, and to the past, in honoring lighthouse keepers from the county.
Instagram fest
The InstaFallFest will be held from 2-5 p.m. Saturday at 596 Main Street in Mathews, a private residence.
Event organizer Kamilah Turner said this is an outdoor festival themed around Instagram and fall. The festival will include a voter registration booth where people can register or get questions answered.
Turner said stations will be socially distanced and will encourage people to take pictures and upload them to Instagram. Stations will include pumpkin area, apple area, fall leaves, archways covered in leaves, haystacks and more. Turner said, “We will have volunteers manning the stations, making sure things stayed sanitized and that people are not gathering in crowds. The goal is to keep the flow moving and not to encourage people to hang around and gather too much.”
In addition, volunteers will be present helping to register people to vote. All registrations will be online, assisted on the person’s personal cell phone, or the volunteer’s tablets.
“The goal is to have a fun-filled day that allows people to have a socially distanced good time and be able to enjoy autumn. Prizes and games will be available as part of the festival,” Turner said.
For more information call 757-329-9111.
Lighthouse keepers
In morning and afternoon sessions at three cemeteries, the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society will honor keepers from the county. Ceremonies are planned at 9:30 a.m. at Trinity Church cemetery, Foster, for Walter M. Shawn; at 11:15 a.m. at St. Paul United Methodist Church cemetery, Susan, for Henry Luther Dow; and at 1 p.m., 2:15 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. at H.C. Smither Memorial Cemetery, Hudgins, for James Garnett Williams, William Thomas Brooks, Robert Harold Matthews, and in a joint ceremony, for Andrew Broaddus Sadler and Charles Franklin Sadler.
Lighthouse service plaques will be dedicated at each grave.
For more details call 703-494-8344.
In both events, face masks, social distancing and other pandemic safety precautions will be observed, the organizers said.