By Elizabeth Reiss
Beacon reporter

After two years of celebrating the town celebration Dawg Days of Summer, the annual Baltic community gathering is facing an end because of a lack of help with organizing it, city officials and past Dawg Days organizers say.
The one-day event has been scheduled for Aug. 8 but will be canceled if there are not enough volunteers to coordinate it.
Sam Beem organized the event its first two years in 2007 and 2008 and struggled to find volunteers to help during both years, she said. She is taking this year off from coordinating the event. She hopes a group of volunteers will take over.
“I would hate to see it go,” Beem said of the celebration. “It was very well-attended and people look forward to it.” She added that she would provide previous Dawg Days information and contacts to new organizers.
Rebecca Fritz, who with her family moved to Baltic this year, said she is interested in helping organize the event, but not on her own. She is the city’s new summer youth director, heading up the 2009 Summer Recreation Program for area youth.
“If I don’t have people interested in helping me with what needs to be done, then I can’t,’ she said.
Several people in the community have expressed disappointment about the situation.
“People are disappointed, because it was a fun family gathering,” Willette Reichert said. Reichert was a part of the town’s 2006 Centennial Committee, where the idea to hold an annual community get-together stemmed after a block party was held in celebration of Baltic’s 100th birthday.
“The idea after that was to continue a celebration that would draw people into the community,” said Elaine Hendrickson, city finance officer. “But it can’t be done with a committee of one. I wish there was a magic button to push and, poof, there would be volunteers.”
Holding a festival to celebrate a community is important in several ways, Mayor Mike Wendland said.
“It’s a fun thing to bring the town together, to get to know each other and get to know your neighbor,” Wendland said. “That was the intent when it first started.”
Dawg Days always provided something for everyone, attendees have said.
“Sam and the committee did a wonderful job of having something that all ages could participate in,” Reichert said. “There were things happening the entire day, and I would be disappointed to see it go.”