Fresh off the year’s two biggest holidays, a group is already planning Dexter’s consummate festival – Dexter Daze – but they need your help.

While it might seem strange to be concerned with an August festival before the Christmas tree is down, that’s how much time it takes for the Dexter Daze Planning Committee to schedule the vendors, organize the events, raise the money, and get all their permits in a row. Before the committee can put those pieces in play, it needs to know who will show up to help.

The Dexter Daze Planning Committee Chair sent out an email with the following plea:

“I am writing to provide you with an update from the Dexter Daze Planning Committee. Unfortunately, due to a lack of volunteers and directors, the planning committee is currently on hold. If we are unable to find enough volunteers and directors to continue with this event, we will not be able to carry on with Dexter Daze next year.”

Dexter has had an outdoor community event each summer for almost as long as there has been a Dexter. Back in the distant day, the event was centered around businesses selling off their surplus summer goods in a collective sale on Dexter’s sidewalks. The occasion was called “Sidewalk Days.” Merchants offered great bargains that drew people from the surrounding areas into town.

In 1971, a new subcommittee for the Chamber of Commerce was formed to plan and organize Dexter’s summer sale, which had grown into more of a festival over the years. The event was officially titled “Discover Dexter Days.” Activities added that year were a movie, a pie-baking contest, square dancing, and a parade.

A few years later, in 1974, the festival was greatly enlarged for the sesquicentennial celebration of when Dexter was first settled. The name was shortened and respelled to “Dexter Daze.”

In the half-century since then, Dexter’s population has almost tripled. The original committee of a few has become a new generation of hard-working and civic-minded people dedicated to preserving their community’s core values.

If you would like more information on helping out with this year’s event, reach out to the committee at dexterdazeinfo@gmail.com

You are also invited to the committee’s next public meeting on February at 6:30 pm at the Dexter District Library.

Photo from Dexter Daze Planning Committee