Escalon’s big once a year gathering, Park Fete, was hosted in and around the city’s Main Street Park with the bulk of activities Friday and Saturday, July 14 and 15. Assisting during the event and then coming through right after the festivities was a clean-up crew that helped get things back into shape.

“For well over a decade, our boys’ basketball program has volunteered to help the Escalon Lions Club, and has been cleaning up Main Street during Park Fete weekend,” Escalon varsity boys basketball head coach and Vista High teacher Nate Bartelink said.

The Escalon Lions Club is the premier sponsor of Park Fete and helped coordinate the wide variety of activities for the summer celebration along with hosting their traditional beer booth fundraiser on Second Street over the Fete weekend.

“We clean up all the trash up and down Main Street, wipe down the chairs and tables that people sit down at to eat, and after Park Fete is over, we help put away all the chairs and tables that the Lions Club had set up,” Bartelink explained. “We have early morning shifts on Saturday and Sunday morning after the previous night’s events, and a Saturday mid-day shift to maintain things about halfway through the day.”

This year, more than two dozen EHS student-athletes and their coaches took part.

“We had great attendance from the members of our program; 30 players and coaches got up early and/or worked through the extreme heat; several players attended multiple shifts,” said Bartelink. “It’s important for the players to learn about being servant minded. It’s great to see the players participate in community service and give back to a community that does so much to support them.”