Among the decoys and waterfowl art that filled Havre de Grace Middle School was the neatly-painted collection of Kira Dare's late husband.
Dare, a Darlington resident, was a first-time exhibitor at the 34th annual Havre de Grace Decoy & Wildlife Art Festival, and excited to bring the decoys out for sale.
"Whether you like decoys or not, there is no way you can not appreciate the artistry, the carving that goes into it," Dare said. "The old ones, the new ones, are all works of art."
The arrival of newcomers like Dare was one bright spot at the festival. Attendance continues to slip at the yearly celebration of decoy-carving, arguably Havre de Grace's greatest contribution to folk art and wildlife culture.
Exhibitors and event organizers say they hope to grow interest in the world of decoys and traditional carving but are struggling to find new ways to do that.
"I think times have changed, and especially the exhibitors here have to figure out how to make this more relevant in a more modern time," Todd Pauliny, a festival board member, said.
"That's a great question and something the board talks about basically every time we get together, and I don't think a great solution has been found yet. I think attendance has been down on a regular basis over the course of the years," he said.
Pauliny, for his part, walked out of the middle school Sunday happy with his purchase of a giant crab sculpture.
His daughters, 6-year-old Paige and 4-year-old Peyton, also seemed excited to have gotten earrings and ice cream at the event – where, as Peyton added with a big smile," there's no TV."
"It's just great to bring out all the local artists and allow them to show their hard work off. If I can support the local people that's great," Pauliny noted. "I'd rather buy something from here than from Walmart or Target or something like that."
Getting others to support local artists is always tricky, he said.
"The board's talked about it and it's not an easy solution. You can go to any sporting good store and buy plastic decoys that are significantly less expensive that do a decent job on the water, and the traditional decoy has gotten rather expensive. If you wanted to put out a whole rig, it would cost a lot of money," he said. "The prices of decoys haven't rebounded significantly off the lows of the crash a couple of years ago."
Dare, whose husband, Robert, died 10 years ago, pointed out she exhibited at the festival because she needs the money, "as a Harford County public school teacher with no raise in the past seven years."
"I have learned an enormous amount about decoys and their value and their differences," Dare said, smiling as she praised her fellow exhibitors and the artists at the event.
"It's wonderful to have had their help this weekend," she said. "It's been a blast."
Attendance has been "a steady flow," she said.
"I think it's really important that people continue to come to this so it can continue to stay alive," Dare said of decoys.
Joyce Gagen, of Shamong, N.J., has been showing her wildlife art at the festival for 22 years.
"It's a really nice festival," she said. Gagen believes a lot of customers did not come this year because they were nervous about the recent unrest in Baltimore. Others said interest in their art has been declining for quite a while.
"Since [the terror attacks of] 9/11, everything went downhill," Raymond Hoffman Jr., of Ray's Model Boats, in Penns Grove, N.J., said.
He said he keeps coming back to the festival and business was decent Saturday and Friday.
Matt Kneisley, regional director of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation, based in Conestoga, Pa., was partnering with Jon Casey, of Final Glide Championship Calls, outside the school building to help children and adults take part in a simulated duck and goose hunt.
Kneisley, of Lancaster, Pa., said his father "was always deep into the decoy history" and began bringing him to the event.
"I've been attending this festival since I was 10, so as I grew older, I decided to get involved and help give back to what I learned as a kid from this festival," he said, agreeing it is hard to sustain interest in the festival's offerings.
"There's been a huge decrease in interest, in just the festival alone with the decoy side of it. People are not getting attached to the history and the tradition of what happened here in Havre de Grace; it's the decoy capital of the world," Kneisley said. "Hunting is on a slight decline. We're working hard as an organization to bring that back."
"It's declining also because we're losing habitat. The less places to hunt, the less interest you have to hunt," Kneisley added.
He and Casey cheered on some young children as they ran with a makeshift goose and practiced shooting at the bird as duck calls rang out.
"We're trying to show the kids what it is to be outdoors and hunt versus playing video games and sitting in front of the TV," Kneisley said. "You can learn a whole lot more in the field and see a lot more neater things than you can in front of an electronic device."