Festival faces decided by contest

By Staff
Jonathan Willis
The faces of this year's Franklin County Watermelon Festival have been decided.
Twelve year-old Brooklyn Hall and three year-old Brannon Oliver, both of Russellville, were announced as the winners of the 2009 Franklin County Chamber of Commerce billboard contest over the weekend.
Their faces will soon stand above local highways encouraging visitors to come to the annual Watermelon Festival in August.
The contest was held as a fundraiser for the chamber.
Photos of children from throughout the county were submitted to the chamber and ran in The Franklin County Times and the Red Bay News each week.
Votes were then submitted at a quarter per vote with the top boy and girl vote getter being placed on the billboards.
Hall, a Russellville Middle School seventh grader, is the daughter of Scott and Ann Hall.
Oliver is the son of Shannon and Tange Oliver.
As winners of the contest, the pair will be featured on the cover of The Franklin County Times' annual Faces and Places magazine, which publishes in July.
"The Franklin County Chamber of Commerce is grateful to the community for such great support on this effort," Executive Director Cheryl Bradford said. "The money raised will allow us to promote our county even more through the Watermelon Festival.
"This was an idea that we decided to try last year and it was very successful. I am looking forward to doing this each year."
Three billboards are set to go up on June 14 featuring Hall and Oliver.
"They are the faces of the Watermelon Festival this year," Bradford said.