In spite of a rainy kickoff, the Brookhaven Exchange Club Fairhas had an extremely positive run this year, fair officials saidSaturday.

“If you don’t count the weather, we’ve had a good year,” saidBob Morris, the club’s president. “We’ve had good participation andhelp from the volunteers this year.”

Morris said Saturday night is always the biggest night. Heexpected this year to be no different.

“I am a little worried about participation from the volunteersin the booths tonight, just because people get worn out after sevendays,” he said early in the evening. “But we’ve had a successfultime so far, and we hope to conclude on the same note.”

While officials could not yet venture a guess on how many peoplehad been in attendance without Saturday’s numbers, Morris did sayfair attendance still continues to be a family tradition forsome.

“We’ve got repeat customers every year, and there are some whocome as kids, and then it’s not unusual to see them back yearslater as young couples with their own kids,” he said. “And peoplehave come from Copiah County, Franklin County, and we’ve even hadsome from Lawrence. It’s hard to measure how many people we’vehad.”

Safety issues took an upswing from past years as well, saidClifford Galey, Lincoln County Civil Defense director and directorof the Lincoln County Firefighters Association.

“It’s looked pretty good so far,” he said. “We’ve only had acouple of medical calls and the three misplaced children that firstnight, but that’s it.”

Galey said he attributed part of the safety success to positiveparticipation from the Brookhaven Police Department and the LincolnCounty Sheriff’s Department, as well as KDMC’s Ambulance Serviceand Volunteer Firefighters Association.

“Everyone’s been here like they were supposed to,” said Galey.”Every volunteer fire department had a night, including two lastnight, and they’ve been here and done their jobs.”

He said the lack of incidents had made for a fun year for allwhen the rain was not an issue.

“It’s been a good year, and we’re really glad everyone’s gottento enjoy themselves,” he said. “Just glad nobody’s been hurt.”

Roger Leggett, the exchange club’s Head of Security, said thefair fared well from the security standpoint,too.

“We’ve done great from our end,” he said. “We’ve had a few minorincidents, and hopefully tonight will be incident-free, too.Saturday is always the tell-tale night.”

Leggett said the events had been about normal as far as pastyears, with the usual playground spats and basic lost-and-foundissues.

“It’s probably about the same,” he said. “You’ve got kids on theplayground, eventually one of them’s going to push anotherone.”

The proceeds from the fair go to fund the Exchange Club, whosemission is to help prevent child abuse. Morris said among theprojects funded by the Exchange Club this year are repaving thefairground, a sizable contribution to the Junior Auxiliary, ayearly scholarship for an area high school senior, and the ChildAbuse Prevention Center in McComb.