Another Neewollah is in the books, and organizers want to thank all the volunteers who made this year's event possible.

 

With Independence's annual Halloween festival bringing in as many as 50,000 guests to a town of 8,400, more than 500 volunteers are needed to assist, and this year, both county amateur radio clubs from Coffeyville and Independence joined in to help.

 

On Saturday, club members from Montgomery, Labette and Chautuaqua Counties in Kansas in addition to Washington and Nowata Counties in Oklahoma were in place at 5 a.m. to provide traffic and safety service for the Grand Parade and Band Competition.

 

Hams are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as an Amateur Radio Service and help during times of local need and national emergencies when other radio communications are down. Amateur Radio Clubs regularly participate in radio communication networks, where a designated person acts as the controller to lead talk and discussion in an organized way. This is how the volunteers communicated at Neewollah for traffic and security, utilizing the Club’s radio equipment and their own two-way radios to keep things moving and to respond to situations that might occur.

 

Jason Kastler of Eagle Security directed the locations and duties of the teams, and says having the ham volunteers at critical points of traffic with the ability to instantly communicate situations to his team was incredibly helpful. He says Neewollah was impacted for the better because of the Radio Club volunteers and their skills.

 

To learn more about amateur radio and meeting times for both clubs, visit the Independence club website at www.n0id.org or the Coffeyville club website at www.coffeyvillearc.org.