Moran Day fest caps whirlwind schedule
MORAN — Debbie Jones will get to enjoy Saturday’s Moran Day activities from beginning to end — something of an anomaly, despite her being the annual festival’s chief organizer.
In years prior, Jones had to leave the festivities by mid-afternoon because of an annual get-together involving Jones, her husband Jamie and other members of the Kansas National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion.
“We have an annual Engineer’s ball and it always seemed to fall on Moran Day,” Jones explained. “This year, it’s one week later.”
Thus, Jones will get to partake in all of this weekend’s events, starting with Saturday morning’s fun run and concluding with softball and kickball tournaments on Sunday.
As an added bonus, Jamie is on hand to assist. Jamie, a chief warrant officer with the 891st, has been serving the past seven months in Afghanistan with the National Guard’s 226th Engineer Company out of Augusta. He’ll return there later this month for the final three months of his deployment. He hopes to be back home by the end of the year.
While Debbie appreciates having her husband around at any time, she’s particularly grateful he’s around now.
“I like it because Moran Day is when we get to see everyone,” she said. “A lot of people come back to town for Moran Day. It really brings a lot of people together.”
WHILE IN Afghanistan, Jamie heads a maintenance department for the 226th, which is responsible for a massive construction project at a military base in Sharana, Afghanistan. The operating base is in a hilly landscape, Jamie said, which makes it more secure “just because we’re so hard to get to.”
The construction effort is necessary to build a number of troop barracks, offices and other facilities to accommodate as many as 5,000 more soldiers, part of the United States’ troop surge in Afghanistan, Jamie said.
Maintaining construction equipment is a bit more time-consuming in a far-off country than it would be stateside, he noted.
“To start with, every part you order takes at least 30 days to arrive,” Jamie said.
There are occasional security threats, which Jamie declined to discuss.
Part of the 226th’s construction effort includes training Afghanis, he noted.
“They’re generally pretty friendly, and they do help quite a bit,” Jamie said. “They’re happy we’re there, and they’re often away from their families like we are. Of course, they’re getting paid quite a bit.”
Afghanistan carries one advantage over Iraq, where Jamie served with the 891st in 2005.
“The temperatures don’t get nearly as hot at 7,500 feet, where we are,” he said. High temperatures in Sharana average about 85 degrees, much lower than Iraq’s 130.
“In Iraq, you had the dust storms, but those were good because they kept the temperature cooler,” he said.
DEBBIE’S duties with Moran Day will come to an end after this year, her fourth as chief organizer.
“I just don’t have enough time to focus on the other things I need to be doing,” she said.
She’s hoping to find a replacement soon, to ensure a smooth transition for the 2011 festival and beyond.
“It’s a lot of work, but things are set up to run pretty efficiently,” she said.
She has a contact list of area vendors to assist with the attractions. Most time-consuming, she said, is finding donors to contribute to the ever-popular merchants drawing.
While the Moran Day “Committee” consists solely of Debbie, she credits others for helping the day go off without a hitch.
Her mother, Pat Dudley, has been invaluable in gathering items for the merchants drawing, she said.
And Elaine Stewart and her Family, Career and Community Leaders of America students at Marmaton Valley High School have a number of activities planned to keep folks young and old entertained.
“They’ve become such a huge component of making Moran Day what it is,” Debbie said.
Debbie also is quick to heap praise on sisters Cheryl Wallis, Nancy Houk and Margaret Jackman.
Wallis serves as the day’s unofficial announcer, using a public address system from the back of her husband’s pickup.
“I call her ‘Miss Moran Day,’” Debbie said.
MEANWHILE, Jamie is doing assorted jobs around the house and spending some much-cherished time at a local fishing hole.
Debbie said the torrential rainstorms this week usually draw her husband outside in search of earthworms or crawfish for use as bait.
“Having him home for Moran Day is nice,” Debbie said, “but I wish we had a couple more weeks, just for us.”
Instead, she’ll await her husband’s homecoming for good later this year.
“And that will be it for overseas trips,” Jamie said, “we hope.”
