Toonfest 2017
posted: 01/11/2022
In 2017, I was fortunate to be one of five cartoonists to be honored at Toonfest, a festival held each year in Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri.
The five of us had an incredible time! The kind townspeople of Marceline wined us and dined us and made us the Grand Marshals of their Toonfest Parade. We gave talks in the town hall, they awarded us with plaques with our names and pieces of Walt Disney’s Dreaming Tree he used to lie under to imagine, they planted trees with our names on them in the backyard of Walt Disney’s childhood home, little kids sang “When You Wish Upon A Star” to us, we drew pictures in Walt Disney’s barn and we were given our own Mickey Mouse ears hardhat.
They told us that this was their way of paying us back for the pleasure we’ve given them over the years. I was stunned and overjoyed. I cried.
Thank you Kay Mallins and the Toonfest Staff for the kindness and love you showed us. I will remember and treasure it for the rest of my life!
