Congratulations to our 2024 Grand Marshals:
Ann & Eve Witzel
From growing up being referred to as “Bob’s Boys” and eventually “The Witzel Girls,” Ann & Eve Witzel are well-known faces in the Stanton community, yet they were still very surprised when they learned that they would have the honor of being Grand Marshals for this year’s Stanton Old Fashioned Days Festival.
For Ann & Eve, the importance of service in the community was instilled in them from a young age as they helped their parents, Bob and Velma Witzel (2014 SOFD Grand Marshals) coordinate the annual Car Show that began well before the very first Old Fashioned Days Celebration in 1984. From there, both Ann and Eve participated in the Queen Contests in the 80s, and Ann went on to manage the Prince and Princess Contest for several years.
When asked what stands out among all of their involvements over the years the most, they both agreed that they are most proud of having started the Free Thanksgiving Dinners for the community. Over the years, this event has snowballed into Free Christmas Dinners, and eventually snowballed into Free Family Fun Days. These annual events are all accomplished through sales of an annual calendar that features hometown girls who volunteer for a themed photoshoot.
These events are all held at the Stanton American Legion, where they became involved early on as kids with the Junior Auxiliary, having a grandfather that served in WWII. Ann was even Miss Poppy in the mid 80s!
Ann’s Styling Salon on Main Street has been in business for 36 years, with the last 24 of those years spent working alongside Eve. As for how they can still offer $5 haircuts in 2024? They said they do A LOT of them, but again expressed the importance of providing a service to the community and making it affordable for all.
The Witzel sisters both extended a huge thank you to the SOFD committee and all of the various organizations and volunteers who devote a huge effort all year round to ensure that we keep the Old Fashioned Days tradition alive and support the community, and they want to encourage anyone that comes out to the festival to also be considerate and appreciative of this.
They also made a point to collectively give heartfelt credit to their parents. Eve shared, “We owe everything to our parents,” as Ann explained, “If it wasn’t for our parents, Eve and I wouldn’t be what we are today. We have amazing parents–even better than Hallmark because they’re REAL. They are who made us who we are.”
The Witzel family tradition of service is still alive and well in the next generation, as Eve’s son Ike Hansen has stepped up to run this year’s Soapbox Derby and Ann’s son, Dino Stickney is excited to bring a Burnout Contest back to this year’s Car Show…And we hear you won’t want to miss the latter of those two events, since the Witzel Girls will be down at D Hale Brake Park burnin’ up their own tires for the crowd’s delight!