HAMLET — The Starke County Tourism Commission has announced the details of the second annual “Taste of Country Festival.”
It will incorporate the first annual “Taste of Country Parade” Saturday, Aug. 16 with Ed Hasnerl presiding as parade marshal at the Starke County 4-H Fairgrounds in Hamlet. The event will begin Friday and end Sunday.
Hasnerl’s community activities have included serving as the first president of Starke United; treasurer of the Henry F. Schricker Library Board; president of the Starke County Minister-ial Alliance; and president of the Board of Trustees of Starke Memorial Hospital.

He also has served as a member of the Starke County Development Foundation; Starke County Community Foundation; Community Services of Starke County (Formerly Council on Aging); Knox Chamber of Commerce; Starke County Historical Society and the Gateway Committee.
Hasnerl received the prestigious Henry F. Schricker “Service Before Self” award in 1995; he has been recognized as a “Sagamore of the Wabash” by Governor’s Otis Bowen and Robert Orr; he has been named honorary speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives and an honorary Indiana Attorney General.
He is an honorary citizen of New York State’s 10th Congressional District and has served as chairman of the Starke County Repub-lican Central Committee 1960-1966. He served on an U.S. Department of Ag-riculture Advisory Com-mittee for President Ronald Reagan. He has served on the original Indiana Film Commission and has been recognized by the National 4-H Foundation for his work in that area.
In the area of business; Hasnerl has been co-owner of Starke Publishers (The Leader); owner and editor of the Starke County News and co-owner of the Knox Theatre; as well as owner of the TeePee Restaurant.
He was also a partner in Hasnerl-Brooks productions in Santa Barbara, Calif.; a producer of educational motion picture films; and Executive Vice President of Rural Electric Cooperatives in Indianapolis.
He has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, the Caribbean and 49 of the nation’s 50 states.
He currently works in the news department of WKVI Radio and hosts a daily radio talk program, “Talking of many things.” He has served as Pastor of the Eagle Creek Church since 1991. Prior to this he was Pastor at Canton United Methodist Church and West Point United Methodist Church in Washington Co-unty.
He has attended Garrett Evangelical Seminary at Northwestern University; Valparaiso University; University of Nebraska; IUPUI; Indiana University Southwest and Brooks Institute.
Hasnerl has a son, Charles, who is the Knox City Judge, and two daughters: Sarah and Rebecca in Spencer, Ind. as well as six grandchildren.