Lansing Events Committee welcomes return of pre-COVID events

About five years ago, Lansing resident Valerie McMillen, along with several fellow residents, volunteered to plan the town’s upcoming bicentennial, forming the Lansing Bicentennial Committee. McMillen had a long history in graphic design and joined to put her skills to good use for the cause.

“The town supervisor asked for people to help with the Lansing bicentennial, and people were submitting examples of designs for whatever logo they might use back here and stuff like that,” she said. “And some of them, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, you can’t possibly use those.’ And I submitted something.”

After Lansing’s bicentennial celebration and subsequent carnival went so well, the committee was disbanded, but former members enjoyed the work so much that they decided to create a new committee, one to continue coordinating community events that all could enjoy — the Lansing Events Committee.

“We fundraised and got enough money to have the carnival back in Lansing that year, and it was such a success, people wanted to have it the next year,” said McMillen, president of the events committee. “We got the OK from the town, and we just formed a 501(c)3. We did all the paperwork. We got the approval. And then we just kind of morphed into the Lansing Events Committee as a permanent thing.”

Now, almost five years later, the events committee is still going strong and looking forward to even more events this year, compared to pandemic shutdown periods.

Since its founding, the Lansing Events Committee has helped organize a wide variety of events and activities for the town, McMillen said. She drew special attention to recent Easter efforts, which Tompkins Weekly covered earlier this year (tinyurl.com/285tonpc).

“What our goal is, is to help people put on an event if they need help, basically fundraisers,” she said. “We don’t help do a birthday party, for instance, but we put the carnival on every year to help the town out. We arranged the parade. We’ve been helping the food pantry, like at Easter, we donated hundreds of dollars of treats for kids [whose] parents use the food pantry in Lansing. … We helped out and helped arrange the Easter egg hunt with the Lansing Fire Department this year after two years of not having it because of COVID.”

The events committee also provides several scholarships through Lansing Parks and Recreation for kids to be able to participate in sports and other recreational activities, McMillen said.

McMillen and other events committee members are grateful for a return to something closer to normalcy after two long years of the pandemic.

“We weren’t able to put on very many events for two years,” McMillen said. “So, last year, we tried like heck to get the carnival off the ground. And because the Fire Department wasn’t open to the public, we didn’t have a venue, and we tried several other places, like we tried to Lansing Rod and Gun Club. And Playland Amusements is the company we use, and they met us there. And even though those grounds are great, there was no way that they could shimmy down into Ludlowville and make all those sharp turns with all of that huge carnival equipment.”

Throughout most of the pandemic, the events committee’s lineup was very slim, with the few opportunities members could offer being things like drive-thru barbecues and pandemic care packages, which minimized close physical contact. Still, the Lansing community has shown nothing but gratitude for anything that the committee has been able to do.

“I think everybody has been really supportive,” McMillen said. “And people actually come up to me and thank me for trying to help out the community with any one of their efforts. … And so, they’re getting to actually know who we are and are thankful.”

McMillen said that Lansing residents are particularly looking forward to the return of the town’s carnival, which this year is scheduled for September, a few weeks later than pre-pandemic years.

“Because of us not having it last year, the carnival company booked our normal week, so we had to kind of not have it then,” she said. “September’s still pretty warm. I think we’ll be OK. And I think we’re going to try to incorporate a few new things at the carnival this year. We have a couple of new acts in mind we’re trying to book, and no band, but we have a great DJ for both nights. And that’s about all we’ve got going right now. And then, once that carnival is over, then we can move forward with anything else we want to do this year.”

McMillen said that the carnival, like other community events, will need plenty of volunteers to make everything run smoothly. She added that volunteering is also a must if residents want to see the return of events like Lansing Days.

“We’ve had people suggest [we] bring back Lansing Days, which used to be a big thing around the Town Hall and ball field,” she said. “And we’d love to do that, but no one volunteered to help us out, and nine people can’t arrange that whole thing for a weekend, getting permissions and all of that. So, people that want to have it, we’d love to have it if they wanted to help out. That would be awesome.”

McMillen said that she’s thoroughly enjoyed her time on the committee, and its nine members remain dedicated to serving the Lansing community.

“All of us love this group so much, and we love working it,” she said. “We love going to our meetings. We like planning all this stuff. We’re just really honored that the town trusts us to have this responsibility. And I just hope people know that. That’s all, really. We all love it. And we want to help. We’re there. If anybody needs help, they should call me.”

The Lansing Events Committee meets the second Wednesday of each month. For more information about the committee and its work, visit lansingeventscommittee.com.

Lansing at Large appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.