65th STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL

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            On Friday, June 17th, we had a wonderfully successful Strawberry Festival on our Church Green.   We sold over 360 strawberry shortcakes and 250 burgers and hot dogs.  Many young families attended as well as the older generation, some church members, many not.  It was great seeing the playground filled with kids playing while their parents socialized.  It was a time to reconnect with old friends and welcome new acquaintances. Joyce Simpson gave tours of our newly renovated sanctuary, giving local people a first-time glimpse of our church, many saying they would love to come back.  We had the musical group Eventide perform which was a lovely addition to the evening.  Since we have not had this event since 2019 due to the pandemic, it was a much needed, well attended social gathering for the community.  In the end we brought in close to $4,450 after expenses were deducted ($1,000 over the last Festival).  UNICEF Ukraine will be receiving a large portion of this once all receipts are in for the event.  Eventide graciously donated their tip jar to be included in our charity drive to UNICEF.  The weather was perfect and it was a smashing success.

 

            Now to thank those who helped.  We could not have done it without our entire church team of volunteers and others making it work.  The SF Committee of Nancy Dickgiesser, Sharon Finkenauer, Stefany Schulz and Sue Stoddard want to thank all those who volunteered their time.  They include: Henry Gates, our bargain shopper who went between stores to always get the best deal for all our food supplies and spent many hours doing this for us.  Thank you Henry for all the hours you put in doing this!  Stefany Schulz and Barbara Baldwin were invaluable in organizing and leading in the making of the biscuits with the help of Carl and Anne Marie Lindskog, Bill More, Al Jarvis, Chris Hubbard, Julie Hultgren, Tim Cowles (Alice Cowles’ son who came back from the West Coast specifically to be a part of this).  And on the day of the festival Bill and Al organized and led us in hulling the strawberries. Thank you to Ethel and Walt Crosby, Joyce Simpson, Kris Hart, Carol Kimnach, Tim Cowles, Chris Hubbard, Stefany Schulz, Mary Jane Purcell, Nancy and Sue.  There were 298 pounds of strawberries to be hulled!  And in the kitchen behind the scenes working tirelessly were Sharon Finkenauer and Stefany Schulz who divided up the biscuit baking ingredients to make it easier for the biscuit bakers AND they spent Friday afternoon whipping all the cream for the event and worked doing kitchen clean up afterwards.  On the afternoon of the event a thanks to Rich Forselius, Chris Hubbard, Carl and Anne Marie Lindskog, Eaton Chen, Roger Calistro, Al Jarvis, Jack Jones, Rich Jeynes, Tim Cowles, Henry Gates, Penny Rogers, Kit Engstrom, Richard Prescott, Sharon Finkenauer, and any others I apologetically may have forgotten, who helped with final preparation, serving of shortcakes, being runners, ticket taking, and clean up.  Thanks to Stefany for the use of her truck for putting signs up around town and going to the dump.  And of course thank you to Joyce for being the tour guide in our sanctuary. Thank you to Jeff Gee for donating Strawberry Festival tee shirts with all proceeds going to us.  And thank you to Rev. Murtha for giving a warm welcome to those attending!!!

           

We could NOT have done this event without the help of Boy Scout Troop #907 and their parents, under the guidance of Eileen Rickel and Tom Luciani, who worked with us ahead of the event to help organize all that they were to do for the Festival. The Boy Scouts and their parents did all the grilling and serving of the hamburgers and hot dogs, helped with setting up and taking down all the tables and chairs on the Green, manned the drinks table, helped with clean up, and were strong bodies to do what we could not.  The Woodbridge Fire Department lent us their grill, canopy for over the grilling station, and provided us with the ice.  The Town of Woodbridge lent us their stage, setting it up and taking it down, and provided traffic cones.

 

The SF Committee could not have done it without our sexton Bob Turner.   Bob worked tirelessly running errands, purchasing paper goods, getting our old Strawberry Festival signs out of storage and fixing them where needed (with Sharon Finkenauer spending many hours changing the dates).  Bob put up tables and chairs, getting our supplies out for us from previous years, finding kitchen supplies, guiding the Boy Scouts, cleaning up in the end when everyone else had gone home, etc.  He was always behind the scenes doing all of this. Thank you Bob!  And Lisa was our graphic designer making up any signs, flyers and posters as we needed them.  She was always there to answer any questions and give us assistance when we asked. 

 

It was a wonderful event that only worked because of the help of all who volunteered.  THANK YOU ALL!!!

 

                                                                        Sue Stoddard & Nancy Dickgiesser

                                                                        Co-Chairs, Strawberry Festival