Boykins to celebrate 125-year anniversary

Published 8:10 am Wednesday, November 4, 2009

BOYKINS—The people of the Town of Boykins will celebrate their municipality’s 125th anniversary on Saturday.

The quasquicentennial festivities will begin at 11 a.m. with the Boykins Volunteer Fire Department cooking and serving hot dogs, hamburgers and fries at the Boykins Firehouse.

Antique items from the town’s history will be put on display at the firehouse, and a PowerPoint presentation of photographs from the past will be shown during the day at the firehouse’s meeting center.

The main event will be held at the Buck Lassiter Mini Park, located at the corner of Main Street and Virginia Avenue, at 3 p.m. Former mayor Rick Francis will be the guest speaker.

“For me it is home, and it’s a place of comfort for me,” Francis said Tuesday. “It’s a close-knit community. Boykins is a place where people come out to help their neighbor. That is one of its true strengths: when you’re down, your neighbor — who you may have just nodded to over the years — will come to your rescue, whether it’s sickness or tragedy or otherwise.”

He added that the town “remembers the past while continuing to look forward. I’ve always found Boykins to be forward-looking for a small town.”

Mayor Spier Edwards said he was also looking forward to this weekend’s festivities.

“It is an honor to be the mayor during our 125th anniversary celebration,” Edwards said Tuesday. “It is a time to reflect the past history of our town, and to plan ahead for the future.”

The mayor added that the celebration should well attended.

“I’m excited and I feel like we’re going to have a lot of people come who haven’t been in town for a long time,” Edwards said. “They’ll get to see the improvements that have been made to the town.”

For more information about the festivities, contact Mary Elizabeth Washington at 654-6492, or the Boykins Town Office at 654-6361.