[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8] [Senate] [Page 11151] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]LOUISIANA PEACH FARMERS Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I would like to recognize all Louisiana peach farmers, the festival's title sponsors: Squire Creek Country Club, the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, the city of Ruston, and all the other sponsors who partnered to celebrate the Diamond Anniversary of the Louisiana Peach Festival the weekend of June 25 to 27, 2010. In 1947, the area peach growers of Lincoln Parish organized the Louisiana Fruit Growers Association. In 1951, the association voted to promote their industry by spreading the word about the exceptional Lincoln Parish peaches throughout Louisiana. In June 1951, the president of the Louisiana Fruit Growers Association, J.E. Mitcham, and Walter Smith founded the Louisiana Peach Festival in Ruston. The association, with the cooperation of the city of Ruston, chamber of commerce, civic clubs, garden clubs, merchants, and many other individuals, worked tirelessly to prepare the city for the inaugural festival. Area merchants filled the Ruston Daily Leader with advertisements offering special sales and savings to honor the first Peach Festival. The program of the First Annual Louisiana Peach Festival, which was held on June 27 to 28, 1951, consisted of ``Peaches and Posies'' flower show, a peach cookery contest, an art show, and several athletic tournaments. The festival also crowned the First Queen Dixie Gem and Princess Peach. In the years following, the Louisiana Peach Festival grew in size and popularity. In 1952, the festival's activities doubled in number. By the third year, the festival won national attention when Queen Dixie Gem III, Dorothy Etta Goff, traveled to Washington, DC, to present then Vice President Richard Nixon a box of peaches. Over the past 60 years the festival has become an iconic event in the region. Thus, today I would like to recognize all the organizations, volunteers, and especially the farmers for continuing to put on the Louisiana Peach Festival. I would also like to thank them for their appetizing service to Lincoln Parish and to the State of Louisiana. ____________________