For 46 years, Jerry Schwartz has been a major contributor to the Jonesburg Homecoming.

On June 13, he was rewarded for his success.

Before the Jonesburg Homecoming Chainsaw contest was about to begin, a brief ceremony was held by the Jonesburg Lions Club members. They honored Schwartz by naming the 50-feet pavilion at Lions Park after him.

“I had no idea that was going to happen,” Schwartz said. “That was done by the rest of the Lions Club members. They kept a pretty good secret from me.”

Several events of the Jonesburg Homecoming were held at the pavilion, including the Kids’ Pedal Tractor Pull and the Baby Show.

“It’s a nice big area,” Schwartz said. “I think that thing is 50 feet wide. The other one is about 80 feet long. It would be a good thing for a long time. It’s a real well-built pavilion made out of steel. I was truly honored and I appreciated it.”

Schwartz said construction on the pavilion started in the beginning of the year and is not completely done.

“There’s going to be a food stand in it, also,” Schwartz said. “Then, they’re going to take that one food stand out of there. They’re going to leave the memorials around the flags as part of the park.”

The Jonesburg Homecoming started in 1941. Schwartz took over chairman duties in 1979, when the fair was moved to Lions Park.

The Jonesburg Homecoming is held every year in the second week of June. Besides the baby show, pedal tractor pull and the chainsaw contest, the event has a parade, carnival, music and other events such as the egg toss contest. It also has a queen and princess contest, but it was canceled this year.

Schwartz said this year’s Jonesburg Homecoming was a successful one.

“We could have had a little bit better weather in the first few days, but the final day was really nice,” the chairman said. “We had to see quite a bit of happy people around there and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I thought we had a good baby show and a good parade.”