The post-pandemic Bell Tower Festival in Jefferson was deemed a success by the organizers.

The event began Friday evening with the opening ceremonies and honoring this year’s Tower of Fame award winners, who were also the grand marshalls for Saturday’s parade. Jefferson High School graduate of 1979 and the President and CEO of the Food Bank of Iowa Michelle Book and a 1965 Jefferson High School graduate who led the State Historical Society for six years Tom Morain. His wife Vikki accepted the award on Tom’s behalf after he passed away last year.

Book shared her initial reaction when she found out she had been selected for the award for someone whose professional or personal accomplishments internationally, nationally or statewide brought great pride to Greene County.

“I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t respond for moments and I think I said, ‘Are you sure?’ So many notable Jeffersonians doing so many good things here and beyond that I’m humbled. I’m humbled to be included.”

The highlight of Saturday morning was the parade, where Home State Bank won best thematic float, Abundant Life Ministries won best non-commercial and Heartland Bank won best commercial float. 

Jefferson Matters: A Main Street and Chamber Community Events Team Chair Philip Heisterkamp commented on how he felt the festival went, after it was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

“Amazing turnout, better than I expected, better than we could’ve hoped. Weather was amazing. We had some scary wind and rain that came through yesterday. But it’s kind of like, we got it all out of the way, and then we could focus on fun from here. Creating the atmosphere we had dreamed out since the winter is just a creative place for people to come down, gather, congregate and enjoy each other.”     

This year’s festival theme was Mission Impossible 2.0. Check out Raccoon Valley Radio’s Facebook page for pictures of the festival.