Families Attend Touch-a-Truck and Flapjack Festival in Downtown Brainerd

Downtown Brainerd was the place to be this past Saturday morning, where families packed Laurel Street for the Flapjack Festival and Touch-a-Truck event.

The two events took place simultaneously for the second year in a row. Touch-a-Truck has been a hit in the community and provides an opportunity to learn more about vehicles like police cars, snow plows, and fire trucks, as well as a chance to support downtown businesses.

“This is our fifth annual Touch-a-Truck that we’ve had in downtown Brainerd,” explained Brainerd Community Development Director James Kramvik. “It’s a chance for families to enjoy, get in the trucks, honk some horns. So it’s a way to kind of involve the community, but also bring people downtown and, you know, maybe grab a cup of coffee, maybe go to a restaurant, so something just to involve the community in some of our our actions.”

One of the highlights of Touch-a-Truck was a demonstration of the jaws of life, which got plenty of “oohs and ahhs” from watchers and gave insight into how prepared first responders are for any situation.

“Officer Rosier did a great job of explaining everything that went into that, how they, you know, rescue somebody from one of those trucks,” added Kramvik. “So there’s a learning opportunity, but also a great opportunity for them to to get up and honk a horn and just enjoy themselves for the day.”

After you got your truck fix, you could then make your way to the VFW for the Flapjack Festival. The festival was started by the Brainerd Historic Water Tower Preservation Committee to help garner support for Brainerd’s favorite landmark.

“It’s just kind of our way of giving back to the community for their local support,” said Paul Skogan, Brainerd Historic Water Tower Preservation Committee Chairman. “And it’s fun to see everybody out here [for the] pancake contest in conjunction with the Touch-a-Truck for Brainerd. It was a lot of fun. It’s fun to see people smile and have a good time on such a gorgeous day, too.”

It was easy to convince people to come inside the VFW to have some pancakes and sausage knowing that their money was going to something that means so much to the community.

“There was a little kid here today that said, ‘I love my water tower,’ and just hearing that from the kids of this community and everybody in the community, it really is a blessing and it really touches you inside that we are going to restore this water tower,” added Skogan.

Brainerd Community Action also helped organize the Flapjack Festival, which got donations from Cub Foods in Brainerd. Volunteers estimated they made over 1,000 flapjacks for Saturday’s festival.