Turtle Festival

The people who have awaited the Turtle Festival with anticipation are probably aware that next Saturday is the last Saturday in April-the official date of the Turtle Festival. Countless people were disappointed at the cancellation last year and have been waiting for this year’s event.

The Kiwanis Club of Belton has enjoyed presenting this event and was hopeful to be able to do it again. However, pre-Covid the membership had been declining and it plummeted during Covid and afterwards. We have come to the point that it is not only physically impossible to have the Turtle Festival, but our club will be closing the end of May.

We appreciate everyone who has supported us, whether through the Turtle Festival, Service Leadership Clubs in all levels of schools, Citizenship Awards at every BISD 5th and 8th grade school, and many other services to children and the community.

We love Belton and the wonderful community we live in. We appreciate the support of BISD, the City of Belton, the various agencies who we have partnered with, the Chamber of Commerce, and all the giving people of our community. Kiwanis Club of Belton may be gone, but we’ll never stop serving!

When the Belton Kiwanis Club first started the Turtle Festival 15 years ago, it was designed to be a “Fun Day in the Park for Families”. We provided fun activities for children at no cost. To enable us to offer the activities for free, we added vendors who sold family-friendly items and we also gave organizations that offer services to families a free platform to display what they offered. Of course, the rubber turtle race was the high point of every Festival.

After a 2-year hiatus for the pandemic, we planned the Turtle Festival as always, the last Saturday in April. This week we were surprised by cancellations of activities which left us with mainly vendors. We made the difficult choice to cancel the festival rather than offer a vendor fair with very limited activities for the children.

This was an emotionally difficult decision for our club, but we are hopeful to be able to once again offer a “Fun Day in the Park for Families” at a later date. We appreciate our loyal exhibitors, many of whom have been with us from the beginning, the community which has been so supportive, and are very sorry for any inconvenience.

This is so hard for me to do, but because of circumstances beyond our control we have had to cancel the Turtle Festival. We will be notifying everyone who has already purchased adoptions for refunds.

If you’re having trouble finding a Kiwanian to buy adoptions from, send a PM and I’ll find someone to meet you somewhere.

I can’t wait to bring my turtle to the Belton Kiwanis Turtle Festival April 30! I just know he’ll win the Live Turtle Race!

Adoption certificates for the Ultimate Turtle Race are now available! Check with any Belton Kiwanian!

Stay tuned for more information-Turtle Festival is April 30, 2022!!

Here's the info!

Keep watching for an exciting NEW event! Details to follow!!