Cruppers have history of service with festival

It’s probably impossible to add up all of the minutes and the beads of sweat Mike and Becky Crupper have devoted to the Chisholm Trail Festival.

Both natives of Newton, the husband and wife volunteered to be on the festival’s board in 1997. Little did they know it would become a decade-long commitment.

“Jo Arrowsmith was the treasurer for the CTF board and wanted out,” Becky said. “The unwritten rule is that you have to find your own replacement, so she found us. That was 1997.”

Becky then became the festival’s treasurer for the next 10 years, while Mike became a board member.

“I was a gopher for 10 years,” Mike joked.

Really, though, Mike helped organize all of the vendors and was vice chairman for a year. Through the years, both put on many hats to keep the festival going.

“There’s always something going on,” he said. “There’s always a fire to put out.”

“It becomes your life for three months out of the year,” Becky said.

And through the years, they also pulled other relatives and friends into the mix. If you knew the Cruppers, you probably had a job at the festival.

“We enjoyed it,” Mike said. “You get to reconnect with people who have gone some other way, and you meet new people, like we met Ed Griswold and John and Treva Brunner. There are always headaches but, at the end, when you make enough money to pay the bills, it’s all good.”

“The board is like a family,” Becky said. “The committee becomes a family. There’s a lot of loyalty.”

The Cruppers decided to hang up their festival hats in 2007 after a decade and countless hours of service to helping make the festival a success.

Both said it was “time for new blood.”

“It was hard work, but it was enjoyable or we wouldn’t have done it for so long,” she said.

Mike, a 1957 graduate of Newton High School, and Becky, a 1961 NHS graduate, say they’ve been going to the festival since about the time in started 25 years ago.

One year, the Harvey County District Court’s employees had a team competing at the festival. Becky, who worked for the court before retiring, remembers the event fondly.

“At the time, they had an Office Olympics competition in which teams competed in areas like pushing office chairs and throwing paper clips,” she said. “We won.”

Mike said his favorite parts of the festival are the car show and other evening events.

“My favorite thing is the street dance because you get to visit with everyone and see people you don’t usually see,” Becky said.

The Cruppers met each other 47 years ago at Play-Mor Lanes. Ironically, one of their nephews now owns the bowling alley.

Mike worked for Santa Fe railroad for 41 years, serving as assistant train master when he retired. She was district court clerk for 34 years before she retired. They have two kids. Their son is a locomotive engineer in Kansas City. Their daughter is a lawyer in Kansas City. They each have one son and one daughter.

Aside from two years living in Fairbanks, Alaska, when he was in the military, the Cruppers have their feet firmly planted in Newton.

And through the years, the couple also has been involved in other areas of community service.

Both volunteered with Heart to Heart Child Advocacy Center, are active at Hillcrest Community Foursquare Church, have been Republican committee members and were active in Marc Rhoades’ re-election campaign, went through the Newton Citizens Police Academy and now deliver Meals on Wheels to the homebound.

Becky also has helped plan NHS reunions and family reunions, was in the Newton After 5 Christian Women’s Club, was involved with Weight Watchers and she volunteers at Newton Medical Center once a month.

And Mike still bowls. Becky doesn’t.

“I just bowled long enough to meet him,” she teases.

Pat Frantum, who has been on the Chisholm Trail Festival board for 10 years and is vendor chairman this year, spent many years volunteering with the Cruppers.

“They helped us a lot by bridging from the old board to a new board because we all joined about the same time,” he said. “We all worked together and came up with new ideas. Everybody worked as a team.”

And the Cruppers have a wish for this year’s festival:

“I hope people buy buttons — even if they can’t go — to support it,” Becky said.

“Yes — buy buttons,” Mike said. “It really helps to have the money to pay for the entertainment. We all have to work together. It’s the only way it will work.”