Volunteers keep Brown Trout Festival going
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ALPENA -- Each year, the work of volunteers helps make the Michigan Brown Trout Festival possible as festival-goers flock to Alpena for fishing, live music and other fun activities.
Despite some unease about a potential lack of volunteers for the festival, all spots were filled at the last minute as the 48th festival kicked off last week.
Older residents who previously volunteered picked up their phone and called festival President Peggy Donakowski. She said she's still receiving calls to volunteer days after the event started.
"It was close, because we didn't have enough, which means you'd have to shut down all the hours of, for example, raffle tickets," Donakowski said. "We need the volunteers. So thank you guys for everything."
While Alpena residents volunteer their time during the festival, at least one volunteer drives from Lansing every year to help her father work the festival.
Danielle and Mick Kaiser work at the drink tent, selling drink tickets to attendees. Danielle said she's been volunteering for 15 years and usually issues a two-week vacation notice for the upcoming year.
Both Mick and Danielle are also a part of the festival's management team. This means they organize each band that performs near the festival's bar.
"I just think [Brown Trout] brings the community together, especially in these times of COVID when we've been kind of cooped up with each other," Danielle said. "And now it's like we can get out and move and groove and these great things I love and I can't say like how much it's just awesome."
With such a large team that puts on the Brown Trout Festival, it was difficult for Peggy Donakowski and the rest of the community to lose Randy Donakowski -- Peggy's husband and the festival's right-hand man.
To honor Peggy's late husband, she put on a memorial car show -- something Randy would have enjoyed.
On Tuesday, the management team and loved ones gathered around a tree recently planted near the bay in memory of Randy. There, people shared good memories of him and the impact he had on those around him.
"He always had the best hair and was always the best dressed," Danielle Kaiser said. "Even in this heat, he'd still have his long sleeve shirt, Levi jeans, and cowboy boots on. He was just like that. We all miss him."
As time goes on and fewer Alpena residents are able to continue volunteering, Donakowski hopes future generations will step up.
"We were fortunate enough to receive phone calls, we filled the positions," Donakowski said. "The younger generation, they need to start stepping up, in my opinion, to do some of this stuff. Because otherwise it's gonna go away."