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In the year 1817, Mississippi became the 2oth state to join the Union.  In 2017, Mississippi is celebrating its Bicentennial with a variety of events across this great state.  The Great Delta Bear Affair will be a part of that celebration by hosting its own “BearCentennial” .  Join us in Rolling Fork on October 28 for “A BearCentennial Celebration”.  There will be food, fun, music, vendors, and more – all capped off with an awesome fireworks show. So, mark your calendars and make plans to celebrate the BearCentennial in Rolling Fork!

Each October during the week of the Great Delta Bear Affair, volunteers join with Teddy Roosevelt impersonator Case Hicks to donate Teddy bears to the patients at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson. In character, “Mr. President” hand delivers bears to patients and visits with them and their families throughout the hospital and its cancer clinic. Since 2012, the students at Sharkey-Issaquena Academy in Rolling Fork have helped raise money to take part in the GDBA Teddy Bears for Kids project.

On the Friday before the Great Delta Bear Affair festival, Youth Education Day is held for over 500 area fourth graders. School children are led through different stations where natural resource professionals engage them in discussions, games, activities and presentations related to wildlife, our environment and our natural resources. The Sharkey/Issaquena NRCS Soil and Water Conservation District partners with the Great Delta Bear Affair planning committee to coordinate the event.