Welcome to Spring Fling!

Once again it’s time for Spring Fling. This time for the first year, the city of Harrington has been working with Odessa on joint advertising efforts and on their own events for the same weekend.

Harrington will also have a quilt show in the Harrington Opera House, plus a car show and yard sales throughout the town. The Harrington Golf & Country Club will also be open Friday with special promotions offered.

Odessa will once again open its doors, yards and garages to bargain hunters with sales all over town. Yard sale maps have been prepared by volunteers in both towns and will be made available to the public in both towns.

Clarene Haynie, who prepares Odessa’s garage/yard-sale map suggests that signs be posted in a very visible location for each sale. Even if your sale is on the map, she says, you still need to put out signs that are easy to see and neatly printed. She also advises that signs be either the purchased variety (Ramm Hardware carries them) or be printed in large letters on a white or light background using a wide-tipped black marker.

This year’s Odessa map has 23 sale locations listed, and locations extend from the top of the north hill to the top of the south hill and everywhere in between. Because there are so many sales this year, Haynie was unable to include a list of items of interest under each one. Everyone will just have to make the rounds to see what is offered. There will also be sales that did not make it onto the map, so shoppers should be on the lookout for signs.

Additional activities this week include a trapshooting match at the Odessa Gun Club on Duck Lake Road on the north hill. The horseshoe club is also holding a state-sanctioned meet at their Finney Field horseshoe pits, and spectators are welcome.

Quilt show

The two-day Odessa Quilt Show is always a big draw. The Odessa High School gymnasium will once again be filled with quilts, wall hangings and beautiful handiwork. The featured quilter this year is Nansi Bainard of Richland, who is bringing over 100 miniature quilts for display. The Hoffman Challenge Trunk Show will also be featured. A “Quilt Walk” will draw visitors downtown to see quilts on display in various businesses along First Avenue.

Trap shoot

Even before there was a Spring Fling in Odessa, there was an Amateur Trapshooting Association competition held at the Odessa Gun Club. This year, a total of 18 teams will compete, bringing approximately 100 additional visitors to town. Shooting starts at 9 a.m.

Equipment auction

The Odessa Volunteer Fire Department will hold its second annual equipment auction/consignment sale on Saturday. The sale includes farm implements, larger pieces of equipment, vehicles and the like (but no household items).

Friends of the Pool

Walk-a-thon

The 7th annual Friends of the Pool (FOP) Walk-a-thon will be held Spring Fling weekend again this year. It is scheduled for Sunday, April 29, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Finney Field in Odessa. School-age children, their siblings, parents, other family members, neighbors and friends are accepting pledges now.

Each year, FOP members create a different theme and give away themed prizes and participation T-shirts to generate enthusiasm about being part of the Walk-a-thon fundraiser. The prizes and shirts are paid for with money donated by sponsoring businesses and families. This year’s theme is “sports” and a jersey-style sport T-shirt will be awarded to each child who participates.

During the event, the children of Odessa walk an average of 16 laps or four miles. Last year, the participants walked a total of 1,278 laps.

The money raised this year will be used to update both the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms in the pool house. New automatic flush toilets will be installed and new hardware for the showers will also be installed prior to this year’s swim season. The FOP members will schedule a workday to paint the walls and ceiling in the bathrooms, install hooks and make the bathrooms more user-friendly.

The money raised will also be used to buy concessions for resale throughout the swim season. Those proceeds are then used in turn to offset some of the cost of swim lessons and help pay for cleaning of each pool.