Cast of 'Lizard Lick Towing' expected to attend Princeton Community Day
By John Joyce
Published in News on May 29, 2015 1:46 PM
The town of Princeton will host its fifth annual Princeton Community Day at Princeton Elementary School Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Scheduled to attend are members of the cast of the television reality show "Lizard Lick Towing," as well as artists, musicians and vendors of all kinds.
Helicopters including Lifeflight helicopters from Duke, UNC, Wake Med and Vidant Medical Center and a Pedro Ch-47 Chinook from Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station will be on hand as well.
Sponsors include A &B Towing and Transportation, Inc. and other community businesses, as well as the Princeton Chamber of Commerce.
Community Day has created from an idea introduced by the town's police chief, Tyrone Sutton.
"When Chief Sutton first became our chief, he got very involved with the Johnston County Partnership for Children. He had seen somewhere where they had child safety seat inspection stations," said Marla Ashworth, Princeton town administrator.
Mrs. Ashworth explained that Sutton established a child safety seat inspection day that in two short years blossomed into something so big, the town board had to take it over.
"It exploded. It was huge," she said.
Child safety seat inspections are time consuming. If the seat fails, it either has to be fixed or replaced. There needed to be something for the second parent and older children to do while the parent with the seat received installation instructions, Mrs. Ashworth.
"There were inflatables, hot dogs, balloons. The next year, it got so big people wanted to pay to be a part of it," Mrs. Ashworth said.
The town board stepped in when vendors and potential sponsors became interested in the event.
"The board asked to take it over so the chief could concentrate on being our police chief rather than a full-time event coordinator."
More than 1,000 people are expected to attend Saturday with more than 50 volunteers making the event possible.
And once the sponsor and vendor fees are collected and donations all tabulated -- minus expenses -- the town of Princeton hopes to raise $4,000 to $5,000.
"Half of the money raised is going to the chamber of commerce and the other half will be split between the Johnston county Partnership for Children and the town library," Mrs. Ashworth said.