The folks in Prattsville are turning the mess of Hurricane Irene into a celebration. YNN's Beth Croughan joins us with more on the first annual MudFest.

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PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. -- "We were covered in mud a year ago, and we had to be," said Greg Town, the pastor at the Prattsville Reformed Church.

They were covered in mud left behind after Irene came to Prattsville. The community was forced to spend the past year cleaning, rebuilding and recovering.

"We were cleaning out every single building, home, all of our basements. And it was tiring, it was gruesome, it was nasty," Town, who is also the co-chair of MudFest, added.

So, to mark the storm's anniversary, the people of Prattsville held the first annual MudFest. "Why mud? It brought so much sorrow a year ago, we decided to bring clean mud in this time and have fun in it," explained MudFest Co-Chair Stephanie Braswell.

The wet dirt covering the clothes, feet and faces of those who were willing to jump in. "Prattsville deserved one day to smile," said Braswell.

"Mud volleyball, mud wrestling," said Laurissa Tilp, a Prattsville resident, of why she came out. When asked if she would play, she added, "Oh yeah, tug-o-war, everything."

"I think it just shows how much fun everybody in this town can have with the whole thing. Everybody's moving on and fixing things up and everybody's going to recover," Tilp said of Sunday's event.

But folks tell us, there's still a lot to be done.