Record setting Hay Daze

When one concert has record attendance and a fundraiser breaks another record, that’s a good mark of a successful small-town celebration.

Janesville’s annual celebration, Hay Daze, saw about a thousand visitors throughout the week of June 12-18. The busiest times were on Friday evening, June 16, when headlining rock band IV Play took the Guardian Energy Stage on Main Street. When they played in Janesville last year, they played to a record crowd of hundreds of people.

This year, thanks to an expansion of the gated area surrounding the stage, about a thousand people crowded together to hear IV Play take the stage once again. As the Hay Daze committee said on their Facebook page, “Records were meant to be broken!”

The drizzle the following Saturday did not deter the crowd much for Junk FM, a new headliner act for Hay Daze.

Local act Generation Gap — a duo of JWP graduate Carter Quast and his grandfather, Rod Scheitel, owner of Scheitel’s Music Store in North Mankato — was the supporting act for IV Play. Family Tradition, a trio of Doug Berndt, daughter Alicia Addler, and son Josh Berndt was the opening act for Junk FM.

Simply Saved Thrift Store’s Fashion Show at Trinity Lutheran Church was the first event of the week on Monday, June 12.

It’s tradition at the fashion shows to have the Miss Janesville contestants (as well as reigning royalty) to help with the modeling. This year, Miss Janesville 2022 first attendant Ariana Aguilar joined contestants Sophia Coulsey, Lydia Huelsnitz, Ava McNair, and Abby Sobolik.

The ladies of Trinity Lutheran Church also provided entertainment with skits between the modeling of different clothing.

The event has grown a lot over its ten years, according to Irene Mulcahey, who helps run the thrift store in Janesville. The store started with clothing donated by a Waseca church tjat was looking to clear its inventory after shutting down a program to give people in need clothing. “They had racks of clothing available for us,” Mulcahey said. “It helped us get started with our clothing line.”

When the first fashion show started, the store raised about $5,000 in funds. “We’ve only gone up every year since then,” she explained.

This year, the event raised approximately $34,400. To date, the store has raised a little more than $216,000 in funds.

Simply Saved uses these funds to benefit the community. It mostly goes to Trinity Lutheran Church’s needs, as it is part of the store’s mission statement to help out the church. Other funds have gone to benefit local organizations like Janesville Matters and to JWP school programs like the Bulldog baseball team.

“I’m very surprised it’s already been ten years since we started,” she said.

This year’s grand marshal was Jerry Schendel, a Janesville resident of 52 years. Many years ago, the first place Schendel stopped when checking out different towns to live in was the Janesville Argus. “My wife and I felt welcomed,” he said.

Although there weren’t many homes for sale, the mayor at the time, A.C. Ewert, showed all the available land in town, and the rest was history.

Schendel joined family and friends on a float, one of more than 50 units in the Janesville parade Sunday, June 18. Visiting royalty from Waterville, Morristown, Mapleton, and even Nicollet were featured in the parade. Other prominent figures included Fr. Brian Mulligan of St. Ann Catholic Church on an electric unicycle, Faith Methodist Church Pastor Kathy King, various members of the Janesville Fire Department, and marching bands from JWP and Maple River.

Other festivities during the week of celebrations were the Miss Janesville pageant, a Fun Run between the JWP football field and Lakeview Park, turtle races and a kiddie carnival at Whispering Creek Nursing Home, Main Street Mayhem (a wrestling event put on by Paradise City Wrestling), and various tournaments throughout the week. Carnival rides on Main Street were provided by Crescent City Amusements.

A separate story on the Miss Janesville pageant appears in this week’s paper.