Planning for this year’s Mule Day Southern Heritage Festival is already underway and the Washington Wilkes Historical Foundation has given the big annual event a big boost.

“This is seed money for the promotion of Mule Day,” said Historical Foundation treasurer Ed Pope Jr. as he handed a check for $1,000 to Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Judy Anderson last week.

As they did last year, members of the Washington-Wilkes Historical Foundation will be coordinating Mule Day’s historical aspects including primitive crafters and costumed docents for the homes and outbuildings. The foundation’s members contributed an authentic historical feel to the heritage festival, visitors said last year.

Chamber board members say they are glad last year’s festival involved more of the agricultural community in Wilkes County, especially the youth, and encourage more people to take an active part in the event.

The first planning meeting for Mule Day will be set in the next two weeks, Anderson said.