 With less than a week to go, the countdown to Hillbilly Days is on. For the first time in two years, Pikeville's annual festival will return to crowds all eager to join in on the fun. Friday, Mountaintop spoke with the son of Hillbilly Days co-founder Jimmy Kinney about the annual tradition. Hillbilly Days was started in 1977 by the late Shady Grady Kinney and Dirty Your Hair to Stratton, and they wanted to have a little parade, to have fun and make some money for the Shriners Hospital. So they worked hard at getting this together, and 77 being the first year, and here we sit 45 years later, and we're still going. And it's grown into be one of the largest festivals in the state of Kentucky. And we've contributed almost $3 million to the Lexan Shriners Hospital, so all is good with what we do, and it's a good time for people to come out, roll up your sleeves, put on your bibs, and have a good time, and have fun and make money. We are Pikeville Medical Center, and we are an amazing place to work. Healthcare heroes of all types work here. All who deserve great rewards. While our heroes are working hard to take care of our patients and visitors, we are taking care of them with top-tier benefits, higher pay rates, and great sign-on bonuses. So join our team today. So what are you waiting for? Apply today. Incredible opportunities await at PMCjobs.org. In recent days, the city of Pikeville has been making last-minute preparations, such as closing the ground level of the downtown parking garage and installing no-parking reminders around the city. Kenny says Pikeville is ready. Well, after two years of the COVID-19 rolling around, I think everybody's ready for this, and I know the activity that we've had and the people with the response is great. We're looking close to 300 vendors right now, and I think it's going to be a great, successful year, and I think it's just a time for people to come out and have fun. As with every year, the Hillbilly Days Festival makes it a part of its mission to help local kids by donating to the Schreiner's Hospital. Kenny says Hillbilly Days is a festival with art. That's how the hospital makes their money, and you're sitting here with a budget, you know, running about $15 million a year, you know, at Laxton, so this money goes toward their budget to operate that hospital. And here just in Pike County, we have over 300 kids that are going to that Laxton hospital. You just go down a road to Florida County, and you're looking over 200 kids. Johnson County has over 100. Those stats are the first of the year, January, so it makes a difference. Our community in Hillbilly Days will make a difference in taking care of these kids that are our kids, and that's what we work for. Hillbilly Days is April 21st through the 23rd in downtown Pifal. To learn more, you can visit hillbillydays.com. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Horgell.