MEYERSDALE, Pa. (WTAJ) —The Maple Festival in Meyersdale is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Dr. Mehmet Oz made the trip out and said a tradition like the Maple Festival in a small town shows why those types of communities are so important.

“Folks are actually experiencing life and sometimes the difficult part of life that happens when you’ve been waiting in line for your turn and the federal government comes in and pushes you out of the way for reasons you don’t understand,” said Oz. “So sometimes parts of Pennsylvania seem forgotten and I want to make sure they’re not forgotten. They matter and in fact their values are the ones I wanna reflect in Washington as the next Senator for Pennsylvania.”

Dr. Oz heard many concerns from voters in Meyersdale, but the number one concern he heard about was managing inflation and lowering gas prices.

“They know if we actually allow Pennsylvania to get the natural gas out and pipe it to the people who need it,” Oz said. “We provide livelihoods to the people of Pennsylvania, especially right here in Meyersdale, we’d be able to reduce energy prices, therefore gas prices, therefore inflation, and we’d be able to make our country energy dominant.”

Dr. Oz also partook in the festivities and was able to interact with voters in a unique way by cooking and serving pancakes.

“I’m using my surgical skills. I haven’t dropped one yet, but what’s really good about this festival is people celebrating life.”

Now Dr. Oz is no professional cook, but he had a good time and did a near flawless job cooking the pancakes.

“It’s not quite surgical, but I trained for seven years to become a heart surgeon. I give myself an A minus. I got some little divots here. I messed up a couple of them, but you know what I learned, when you mess up a pancake you put it at the bottom of the stack and no one notices because they all taste the same.”