Vidalia Receives High Honor by The Blue Angels

Air show

(L to R): Doug Roper, Mayor of Vidalia; Jake Cleghorn, Incoming Chair of the Vidalia Onion Festival; Andy Woodruff, 2022 Chair of the Vidalia Onion Festival; and Marsha Temples, Membr of the Vidalia Onion Festival Air Show Committee.

Since 1998 Marsha Temples has served on the Air Show Committee of the Vidalia Onion Festival, and recently, she and fellow committee member Brian Fredrick were in the right place at the right time: The location where the U.S. Navy Blue Angels were presenting award at the International Council of Air Shows (ICAS), and it was there they learned that the Vidalia Onion Festival was the recipient of the 2022 Civilian Air show of the Year.

“We didn’t know we were going to receive this award,” Temples said. “We just happened to be at ICAS when they announced it. We got it because we do whatever they ask us to do --- and we treat them with Southern hospitality!”

Temples goes on to say that often the maintenance crew is overlooked at air show venues and aren’t allowed to go on any excursions or even fed as the pilots. But when they are in Vidalia, they are definitely fed, entertained, and treated with the respect and honor which they deserve.

“I’m just glad we were there to receive this award and bring it back to Vidalia,” she said.

Vidalia was the first recipient of the Blue Angels Civilian Air Show Award in 2003 and have received it a few more times since.

Andy Woodruff served as this year’s Chair of the overall Onion Festival and says the award reflect positively not just on the Air Show Committee, but all the volunteers and the people of Vidalia who so graciously welcome the Blue Angels to the community.

“This is a big deal,” Woodruff said. “When you realize we have been recognized above every other venue in which they performed, it really means a lot. In fact, we even beat out Hawaii and for Vidalia, Georgia, to be at the top of their list is really special!”

At Monday’s meeting of the local press where the award was unveiled, Mayor Doug Roper and incoming Chair of Onion Festival Jake Cleghorn also spoke on receiving the award. Read what they had to say in Part 2 of this story tomorrow.