About Us

“OxFest” started as an annual barbecue organized by Dave Haddox and Kevin Walde in 2014 to memorialize the lives of Dave’s brothers Doug and Duane Haddox.  Doug, the oldest, and Duane the middle brother, died prematurely from complications of diabetes,  in 2013 and 2010 respectively.

At the end of  each  barbecue, Dave and Kevin would sit around a fire and reminisce until the wee hours of the morning. They dreamed of turning “OxFest” into a benefit music festival, never thinking their campfire talk would turn into a reality. But after the 2016 barbecue, Dave took the “Ox” by the horns and decided to make it happen.

OxFest benefits a scholarship in Duane Haddox’s name at St. Francis Borgia Regional High School in Washington, MO where Duane had been the athletic director, and Whole Kids Outreach, a nonprofit organization to which Doug was a special friend and a generous benefactor. In 2018, OxFest welcomes the WINGS Educational Foundation as its newest beneficiary.

St. Francis Borgia Regional High School is dedicated to providing a Catholic education that fosters spiritually, morally, academically, and technologically prepared lifelong learners.

Whole Kids Outreach is a faith-based, nonprofit organization committed to addressing the unmet health and developmental needs of pregnant women and children through an array of home visiting and center-based program. The service area spans 5,000 square miles in seven rural counties in the Missouri Ozarks (Butler, Iron, Reynolds, Carter, Shannon, Wayne and Ripley). This under-served region is economically depressed and our families struggle with social, medical and geographical isolation.

The WINGS (Washington’s Investment In Great Schools) Educational Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)3, corporation established to encourage and develop School District of Washington students.  The Foundation strives to create new opportunities for students by providing the necessary funds to support programs which are not or cannot be funded by the School District of Washington. We promote educational excellence by providing teacher grants, student scholarships for continued education, state-of-the-art equipment and recognition of outstanding faculty and staff achievement. Finally WINGS solicits and manages investments and distributes funds to enhance the excellence of public education within the School District of Washington.