Sweet Corn Sunday, which began in 2020 in Treloar, transformed this year into “Watermelon Sunday.” While the last-minute change came as a result of anticipated extreme heat, organizer Dan Burkhardt said the substitute event was a success and may return next year.

“We got a little curveball from the weather,” said Burkhardt, co-founder of nonprofit Magnificent Missouri, which hosts the annual Sweet Corn Sunday, and now, as of Aug. 16, also Watermelon Sunday.

Turnout for this weekend’s event was “down quite a bit” compared to past Sweet Corn Sundays, with around 100 visitors having stopped by shortly after 1 p.m., about an hour and a half into the event. Past Sweet Corn Sundays have drawn closer to around 250 people, Burkhardt said.

“We cancelled Sweet Corn Sunday because of the heat alert, and then this morning it was raining like the devil in Jeff City all the way to St. Louis, so yeah, we suffered a little bit, but we’re still giving away watermelon,” he said.

Sweet Corn Sunday is a fundraiser for the Marthasville Volunteer Fire Department, and firefighters would typically be boiling sweet corn and grilling bratwursts at the event. The fire department pulled out of the event, however, due to the extreme heat forecast.

“It got too hot for the fire department, so what does that tell you?” said Burkhardt. 

There were some other changes besides switching from sweet corn to watermelon. A tram that was supposed to take guests between Treloar and Peers was cancelled, as were music performances by E&E Railroad with Ellen Gomez, as well as the Opera Bell Band.

The Opera Bell Band was scheduled to perform “A Salute to Corn,” but “when everything blew up, we said, with Watermelon Sunday, it doesn’t really fit the program,” said Burkhardt, adding that there may still be a local performance of “A Salute to Corn” at a future Magnificent Missouri event.

“I’d like to try to get them out here for the Treloar Elevator Party that we have in October. That’s another one that the fire department does for us, and it’s a way to raise money for them. We buy all the food and they cook it and keep the money, so I’d like to see us do that in October if we can get the band back,” Burkhardt said.

Watermelon Sunday did still feature live music by Michael Bauermeister and Gloria Attoun. Burkhardt said he is not sure if he will permanently change the annual event to Watermelon Sunday, or possibly continue to hold both Sweet Corn Sunday and Watermelon Sunday.

“I told my wife, I said, ‘You know, having this thing in August, maybe we ought to make it Watermelon Sunday.’ It’s cooler. And it’s been fun. We kind of had to pivot pretty quickly to figure out something to do, so we went right down to Kopmann’s farm down here, about a half a mile, and bought a dozen watermelons, and here we are,” he said.

Genie Hofstetter, of Holstein, said she thought the change to Watermelon Sunday was a great idea, “because they could have just cancelled the whole thing, but Dan really likes to do these things and promote what’s going on with the trail.”

Hofstetter was involved in helping Burkhardt to acquire the Peers Store and the Treloar Mercantile Building, which has now been converted into the Ted & Pat Jones Welcome Center. Both buildings, located along the Katy Trail, were open to the public for Watermelon Sunday.

Hofstetter noted that Burkahardt was also behind an effort to turn a vacant lot located between the Peers Store and the Katy Trail into a natural prairie environment.

Kevin Luebke, with Harold’s Famous Bee Co., who had a demonstration bee hive on display and was giving out honey samples, said the patch of prairie across from the Peers Store is a valuable educational tool.

“We kind of want to spread the message that all pollinators need our help and need resources,” he said. “Bees can go up to five miles, but your native pollinators need something in every yard.”

Harold’s Famous Bee Co. was founded on the use of bee venom, which the company can harvest without harming its bees, and uses to make a cream that can help with inflammation and sore muscles, Luebke said. Harold’s partners with Magnificent Missouri because the nonprofit is conservation-oriented, Luebke said, and does important work promoting and improving the Katy Trail.

“The hope is people bring the trail back home with them. They think ‘Wow, I saw all these plants along the trail, I saw a prairie,’ and, you know, they reproduce that in their yard and develop a better connection to conservation,” he said.

Besides Watermelon Sunday, as far as any other new events coming up for Magnificent Missouri, Burkhardt noted that “The Trail State,” a documentary about the Katy and Rock Island trails, will premiere next month.

Whether Watermelon Sunday continues as an annual event, either in addition to or as a replacement for Sweet Corn Sunday, remains to be seen. “But now we know we’ve got a backup plan,” Burkhardt said.