Ovid Days

Friday night at the ball field

Ovid Days opens with batters stepping into the box. In 2026 the Home Run Derby began the celebration on Friday, June 12, and winners were crowned that night. The organizers’ account of the evening singled out one result: “One of the coolest parts of the evening was seeing three generations of winners.” The 2026 theme was “Party Like It’s 1776!”, and the bill promised hitters the chance “to send baseballs into the next county.”

The celebration is run by the Ovid Days Board Members from 312 Main Street. In March 2026 the board said the weekend was coming together to support the Ovid Volunteer Firefighters.

Saturday on Main Street

Saturday starts with the Color Run. Runners and walkers are covered in patriotic clouds of color from start to finish. By midday the food trucks and vendors are set up at the park and the school, and the co-ed softball tournament runs all day at the ball field. Children play games for prizes and a chance at money. A table holds the Coloring Page Bike Raffle: a child picks up a page, colors it, and enters to win a bike. In 2026 the bike was donated by AP Diesel.

Red, white, and blue run through the day. The Best Dressed Patriotic Costume Competition invited Uncle Sams and classic Americana. In 2026 the winner aged 21 and over drank free Saturday evening “on the Ovid Days Board Members,” and the winner under 21 took home a gift card to D&J Café.

Floats decked out “with a little Revolutionary flair,” in the board’s words, roll down Main Street in the Grand Parade with flags and candy. In 2026 the parade started at 5:00 PM, and spectators were told to come down and grab a spot. The cornhole tournament and the duck races followed. The beer garden served cold drinks, and a live band played into the evening. The bill also listed goat roping, which the organizers call “a true crowd-pleasing western tradition.” The day after the 2026 edition the board congratulated its cornhole winners, thanked the town, and signed off: “See you next year!”

Linda Koester and the first Ovid Days

The celebration began with Linda E. Koester. According to her obituary in the Julesburg Advocate, she “started Ovid days back in the late 70’s and it fell off for awhile and now it is an event each year in Ovid.”

She was born in Ovid on August 11, 1943, and graduated from Ovid High School in 1961. She finished beauty school in Sidney, Nebraska, and in 1964 married Donald J. Koester. The couple lived in Sterling, Sidney, Berthoud, and Greeley before returning to Ovid. In 1976 they opened D & L Meat Co. Inc., and the obituary says customers drove for miles to have their meat processed there. From making party trays she moved into catering dinners, auctions, and weddings. In 1997 she and her sister Rozella Dillehay opened KODI’S KAFE in Ovid, with a bar called Willie Joe’s Saloon. People came in for afternoon coffee or a game of pitch. The obituary describes her as “always looking for ways to improve” her community, and she worked the 4-H sales in surrounding counties each year.

She died on February 21, 2012, at Sedgwick County Memorial Hospital, aged 68. That July the Advocate reported on “the annual Ovid Days Celebration” and its new additions. Bikers registered at Railroad Park in Julesburg for the Steel Pony Express poker run, which made its final stop at the Ovid Days BBQ. Organizers booked a mechanical bull and an inflatable obstacle course for the children, and the paper noted the bull operator was ready to “buck off” anyone willing to try. Kids’ games in the park and the duck races paid cash prizes that year too.

Clouds of color for the Heart Institute

The Color Run started as a benefit. In July 2015 the Advocate reported that Jeff and Anne Sittner had delivered a $3,000 check to Children’s Hospital Colorado. The run had been held specifically for the hospital’s Heart Institute. The paper credited volunteers and sponsors, among them Marcie Dolan, Lori Ebke, Optimum Threads Embroidery, Terrie Hollingsworth, Karen Lechman, Becky and Joe Sittner, and T.J. and Jessica Amendt.

The third annual Ovid Color Run 5K Walk/Run was held July 15, 2017, with one hundred participants. That year’s check, $3,500, went to the hospital’s Cardiology Floor and Heart Institute and brought the three-year total to $10,000. The 2017 story spelled the couple’s name Sitter, not Sittner, and carried their thanks to sponsors, volunteers, and runners: “We never would have imagined when this idea came to fruition, that we’d be able to donate like this!!”