The saying goes it takes a village to raise a child and, there is truth in that statement.

I also think it takes a village of hard-working and civic-minded people to make a great community.

A fine example is the National Day of the Cowboy event in Victoria.

This event takes the work of many for the benefit of those who, for years, the event didn’t make money and in fact the town saw some financial losses.

Fortunately, for the community, event organizers recognized that the real value in those lean costly years wasn’t in an immediate financial return but rather in building community relationships.

The National Day of the Cowboy is a 501(c)3 organization which was established in June 2005 to secure permanent status for the fourth Saturday in July as a day to celebrate cowboy culture and pioneer heritage.

On Saturday the Town of Victoria was host to shootout reenactments from the Tom Mix Rangers, an organization that performs re-tellings of cowboy escapades of yesteryear.

There were free hayrides, live music, a BBQ cookout and even a “rodeo” where children rode stick horses and bicycles.

It was a fun day for all, bringing friends together and out-of-town visitors into our shops and restaurants.

Great memories were made and seeds were planted in the minds of visitors that Victoria is a nice place to visit, and hopefully to return to.

Kudos to cowboy Bobby Atkins, member of the Tom Mix Rangers and lifelong resident of Lunenburg County.

It’s folks like him who help make Victoria a better place to live, work and play.

Congratulations to all of the event organizers and the community of Victoria for building a community to be proud of.

We invite you to share with us, let us know what you’d like to see in your community newspaper. If something works we want to hear about it, and the same thing goes if it doesn’t work.

Betty Ramsey if publisher of The Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch. Her email address is Betty.Ramsey@KVDispatch.com.