West Perth's Mayor was beaming over the great success of the Mitchell 150 festivities.
Things kicked off on Wednesday, July 31 with a street party and golf tournament, and Mayor Walter McKenzie says the whole event was a huge success.
"Most of the meals and special dinners we had were sold out. Good crowds at all the different events, and I think the organizers are well pleased. Like I said, it was 150 years in the making, and I think it was very successful," McKenzie shared proudly.
McKenzie notes that so many volunteers stepped up to make the events happen, including Councillors Doug Feltz and Phillip O'Donnell, who were on a number of organizing committees and helped to steer the festivities.
Funds were raised for the new Ketterson Park Pavilion, and there were events for people of all ages, including dances, golf, dinner events and more. McKenzie says he's incredibly proud of how the community came together to celebrate, and that he was floored by the attendance and the amount of people from past and present that were part of the party.
"The attendance that we had, we had a street party to kick it off on the Wednesday night, and the downtown was full of people and that's what we wanted. Some of the stores were open and there were all kinds of venues that had set up tents, and you could go all over the Main Street," McKenzie said.
McKenzie says there were so many people that returned to Mitchell to celebrate, he had a hard time keeping track of everyone.
"Most of the events had name-tags, which helped me out immensely," McKenzie chuckled. "There was a number of high school reunions that took place over the weekend. There were students from way back that came back and saw some of their classmates."
There were people who were former residents of Mitchell that came from all corners of the country, as well.
"From New Brunswick, clear across most of the country, and they came home. Maybe they were here as youngsters or they worked here for a time and then moved away. It was just great to see everybody there," added McKenzie.