For natives and residents of Hagerstown, the third weekend in August is always a special time, a time that connects family and friends and links the present to the past. This year will be no exception, as the Nettle Creek Lions Club stages Jubilee Days — Hagerstown’s traditional three-day summer party — Aug. 14, 15, 16.

The celebration, which begins Friday evening and runs through Sunday, will feature a Festival Market where visitors can buy Amish-raised produce, a variety of crafts and all types of fair food; an outdoor Kid Zone with inflatable games and pony rides; a car show; all types of musical entertainment; a teen dance at Hagerstown High School; and the traditional Jubilee Days Parade on Saturday morning.

“It’s going to be a great time, as it is every year,” promises Cindy Harper, who has helped stage the big event for nearly three decades along with her husband and other longtime Lions Club members and supporters. Cindy is a past president of the Nettle Creek Lions; her husband Jim, a Hagerstown optometrist, is the current president.

“We’ve been doing this for 27 years,” Cindy says. “There’s a core group of about 15 of us who help put this together year after year. To a certain extent, it’s kind of a year-round thing for a lot of us — you know, just part of the routine. We really have a lot of fun with it.”

With 27 years under their belts, the Harpers certainly represent a deep reservoir of knowledge about Hagerstown’s annual summer festival — but they’re by no means the deepest well. Consider, for instance, Bev Dale, a 73-year-old Hagerstown native who remembers the very first festival (in 1951) and has the honor of being named the very first Jubilee Days Sight Queen (in 1952).

“I won a dozen roses and, I think, $25,” says Bev, chuckling as she recalled winning the crown as 16-year-old Bev Leavell. “It was kind of a last-minute thing,” she says, pointing out that it really wasn’t even her idea to enter the contest, which was staged as a fund-raiser to help the Lions Club provide eyeglasses to needy children. “I was working at Welliver’s restaurant, and the day before the first contest, (restaurant founder and owner) Guy Welliver said, ‘Oh, by the way, Bev, you’re going to be in the Sight Queen competition tomorrow. You’re going to be Miss Smorgasbord.'”

She wonders now whether she wasn’t chosen largely because, as the daughter of a local car dealer, she had easy access to a convertible (an absolute must for the parade, you see). Whatever his reason, Welliver’s choice proved wise because, at a penny per vote, Miss Smorgasbord raised the most money from her supporters and so won the title as the first-ever Sight Queen. And she did it against stiff competition from about 30 other comely contestants. “A lot of places had several girls in the contest,” Bev recalls. “I think PC (Perfect Circle Corp.) entered 10 or 15.”

In the years after that big win, Bev didn’t just rest on her roses. In fact, she helped longtime queen contest organizer Don McCullough prepare for the event for many years. Also, even though she and her husband moved to Richmond 23 years ago, she still returns to Hagerstown most years for Jubilee Days.

Regrettably, she says her husband’s poor health will probably keep her in Richmond during this year’s festival. Still, she adds: “I’ve been back for a lot more of them than I’ve missed over the years, I can tell you that. I’ve always enjoyed Jubilee Days, and I’m proud to have been the first queen.”

A good measure of Bev’s pride is no doubt linked to the good that comes from the money the festival generates each year; and community assistance is still very much at the heart of the event. The money raised from Jubilee Days helps the Lions support a host of local and regional organizations — including the Nettle Creek Food Pantry, the Greens Fork girls softball program and Hagerstown Little League — as well as assist area low-income families at Christmas.

Aside from the donations it generates for others, however, the three-day festival also generates something very important to participants: priceless memories such as those shared by Bev Dale and the Harpers.

And it’s not only longtime veterans who treasure the tradition.

“My wife and I have only lived here since 2001, and at first I really didn’t get it,” admits Jeff Richards, owner of a local design firm called Freedonia Studios. “I thought Jubilee Days was just another summer festival — you know, a parade, games for the kids, that sort of thing.”

But after living in Hagerstown for several years and attending the festival with their sons (9-year-old Seth and Eli, who will turn 7 on Aug. 10), Jeff says he and his wife Janelle now have a deeper appreciation for the event.

“Jubilee Days is really a giant homecoming,” he says. “It’s not just a class reunion; the whole town has a reunion. It’s a real celebration of family and friends.”