Lights, camera, action in Lindsay

By Barry Porterfield

Staff Writer

It’s sure to be a festival feel in the air Tuesday as the Lindsay community will come together to host a television crew on tour all this week with stops in five different Oklahoma cities.

With a picturesque school playground and activities galore as a backdrop, a team from Eyewitness News 5 will be doing at least two live broadcasts in Lindsay as part of an annual summer tour.

Lindsay will be the second of the TV crew’s series of visits that has Perry getting it started and Midwest City, Seminole and Mustang rounding out the week.

Needless to say folks in the western Garvin County city are pretty excited as they prepare for an event that many Pauls Valley residents can relate to since Channel 5 crews made a similar stop here just about three years ago.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to show what a great town we have with a lot of great people,” said Paula Barker, manager of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce.

The event came about after Lindsay was nominated as a city to host one of the visits.

At that point Barker was told by a Channel 5 official to prepare for a possible stop since the city had been chosen as one of 10 finalists. It was later confirmed they were indeed a part of the five-city tour.

“It’s been a madhouse ever since we were selected,” she said adding preparations then began at full-force as a chamber committee was quickly formed.

“We started brainstorming on things to do and places in town we could feature.”

The Murray-Lindsay Mansion, the one-room Pikes Peak School and Dutton’s Broomcorn Museum are among the attractions in the Lindsay area to be in the spotlight when Tuesday rolls around.

According to Barker, it actually got rolling a little bit last week when a TV crew toured the city.

They decided the playground at Lindsay Elementary School was the place where they would set up for a couple of live broadcasts.

When that set up happens about 10 a.m. a full day’s worth of activities will get underway, which includes a tour of Lindsay provided to news anchors and other Channel 5 staff.

The tour will end with a 21-gun salute by the Lindsay American Legion at the local cemetery as the group is then returned to the playground site.

“We have all kinds of things set up there,” Barker said, adding most are geared for the younger set.

Included are pony rides by the local roundup club, tractor pulls, a chuckwagon and various games.

“It’s going to be wonderful. We’ll have cheerleaders and our band playing our fight song. We’ll be playing up activities to bring young people here. There will be lots of stuff,” she said.

“I think when people see the activities and hear the music they’ll come out. I expect a good crowd.”

Barker, who has close ties to Lindsay with six generations of her family from there, sees the event as an opportunity to showcase all the different things Lindsay has to offer.

“I think people realize we are a town that should be heard from,” she added in a reference to why she thinks Lindsay was nominated in the first place.

The chamber director also credits local residents and the community itself for pulling together and pitching in to help when the event’s planning started.

“I was overwhelmed at first, but people started coming in and volunteering to help,” Barker said.

“I couldn’t have done this without all the enthusiastic people in this town.

“They want to toot the community’s horn.”