In a week that would celebrate tourism across the country under normal circumstances, one of Butler County's biggest annual events was canceled Monday.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this year's Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival won't be held in June.

“It's just unfortunate that this situation is causing more and more cancellations and affecting more people,” said event organizer Patti Jo Lambert.

Organizers based the decision on the availability of the venue, Lambert explained, adding how she learned last week Cooper's Lake Campground would remain closed for the rest of the year.

In recent weeks, the 500-acre Worth Township campground saw the cancellation of the popular annual Pennsic Wars event. After other outdoor festivals and events came into question due to the pandemic, owners decided to close the book on the entire season.

The campground, which has roughly 200 campsites, made its own announcement Monday afternoon on its Facebook page.

James Brezel, president of the campground — a self-proclaimed “Jeeper” — was disappointed he could not stay open for the festival. He said the decision was not an easy one to make.

“It's a decision we had to make to make sure we could open up next year,” Brezel said. “It's economics, you have to look at your best chance to move forward.”

The post said reservations for events automatically will roll over to 2021, allowing the customer to keep the same site for the same event in 2021.

“The prognosis for next year is very good,” Brezel said. “The nice thing about this whole thing is that all of our groups have been fantastic. Everybody understands this is a pretty big issue all around.”

Lambert said the Jeep festival is one of the events that has shifted focus to next year at the campground. She said the event's leadership considers the campground as its partner, even if it isn't in a legal or financial sense.

“Our relationship with Cooper's Lake runs deep because we pull off Bantam Jeep Festival every year,” Lambert said. “In order to pull off the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival that everyone knows and loves, there's no alternative.”

Supplementary events

Lambert said while organizers and volunteers will focus on the full event in 2021, she is also in the early stages of planning a supplementary event in the fall for “Jeepers” to get their fix.

“It's very important to our organization to keep the Jeep community together,” Lambert said. “That's what we're working on right now.”

Sarah Shaffer, of Butler, has volunteered in the merchandise tent for the past four years.

“It's sad because it's such a community outreach,” Shaffer said. “But we are understanding the circumstances of COVID-19. We can't have a large gathering.”

Shaffer said she will miss seeing the same people who visit her tent each year, but she has aspirations for a great year next year.

“I'll miss seeing the community come together and have fun,” Shaffer said. “I'm looking forward to picking up where we left off.”

Lambert said the 10th anniversary celebratory additions to this year's festival will happen next year.

“We're just going to pretend like 2020 didn't exist, and we're going to do all the things we had planned next year,” she said.

Jeff Geibel owns a business on Butler's Main Street and serves on the board for Butler Downtown, which sells Jeep cutouts to fundraise for the organization.

“We'll still sell cutouts. Any local businesses they want to display, we'll have them in inventory,” Geibel said.

Many disappointed

Geibel said he has seen the big Jeep parade that cruises down Main Street every year, but he and his wife have never been to the festival. This year would have been their first, as only weeks ago, they went “all-in” on Jeep Fest and bought a new Jeep. Now they will have to wait one more year.

“It's something we're proud of in Butler,” Geibel said. “Home of the Jeep.”

Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau, said the Jeep Festival's cancellation was one of many casualties of a difficult fight with COVID-19, but this may be the toughest to swallow.

Cohen said he was once gifted a piece of foundation from the former Jeep manufacturing plant as a symbol of the bureau's relationship with the event. He said that piece is in his office to this day.

“I still have it, and I will always have that,” Cohen said.

Cohen said no one can blame Cooper's Lake for its closure. It's doing what it needs to do to survive.

“It's everybody in this situation, and it's everywhere,” he said. “We'll see them next year, that's all we can do.”

Megan Klingensmith is the Region 3 leader for Mission 22.

“I'm bummed for a lot of reasons,” she said.

Klingensmith said her organization, like many other nonprofits, is taking a big hit during the pandemic. She said her booth at last year's event sold $5,000 worth of stickers and other merchandise for “Jeepers “to customize their vehicles with the Mission 22 logo.

Klingensmith said the impact goes beyond finances though too.

Mission 22 is a nonprofit that reminds and advocates for the 22 veterans who die by suicide every day.

“Mission 22 has a Jeep following,” Klingensmith said. “We talked to a lot of people in three days. It was one of our bigger events in this area.”

Tourism in county

Cohen said the latest closure furthers his concern about tourism in the county, which added more than $700 million into the county's economy last year.

Cohen said this week's National Tourism Week usually serves as a time to ramp up promotion efforts and conduct the bureau's Toast to Tourism Dinner, which also serves as an awards ceremony.

Cohen said this week now will be about letting people know about the impact of the pandemic and what it will take to recover. As for the dinner, which would have been Thursday, it will be postponed until the pandemic ends.

He said the awards will still get to people who deserve them this year.

“I want them to know that people in our community have done amazing work, and we want to recognize them for it,” Cohen said.

“Jeepers” also won't walk away empty-handed this year.

Lambert said despite forwarding much of this year's festival activities to next year, the festival's Jeep raffle must legally take place this year.

“We can delay when that drawing is held, but (legally,) we still have to have that drawing this year,” Lambert said.

The winner takes home a 1981 Jeep Scrambler that is in the midst of a restoration. Tickets are selling on the event's website. Two-thousand tickets are available for the drawing.