Festival brings crowd to GC
GROVE CITY — To some, Strawberry Days marks the start of summer. Others just want to take advantage of the varied craft exhibits, food vendors and live entertainment.
To the organizers, the festival is a way to raise money for a good cause.
The festival, now in its 25th year, started with a pig roast Thursday night and featured craft vendors, food and live entertainment on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Mary Kay Mattocks, chairman of the festival committee, said Saturday that the event was again a success.
Though there was a brief downpour Friday night that knocked over some tents, the skies cleared quickly.
“We got everything set back up and the evening was beautiful,” Mattocks said.
The 20 food stands at the event were all manned by nonprofit groups.
Grove City Midget Football, a youth football program for ages 5 through 12, offered fresh strawberries, which the volunteers got from nearby farms, said Heather Wilmington, who was working the stand Saturday.
The beginning of June is the best time for fresh strawberries, she said.
“They just came into season, according to one of the farmers. They were supposed to be ready to pick by June 5,” she said.
Other groups sold prepared food, including the Grove City Rotary Club which offered strawberry shortcake.
Rotarian Evan McKnight said the group usually raises about $3,000 at Strawberry Days. It is one of two fundraisers the club has each year.
The money the Rotary Club takes in goes toward maintaining the memorial gardens in the Memorial Park and scholarships.The club also is planning to donate benches to the Grove City Middle School, which is setting up an outdoor classroom.Haylee Urey, 11, of Mercer said she was at the festival with the Synergy Baton and Flag Team, which sold walking tacos to raise money for a trip to Wildwood, N.J., for a competition.Urey also had time to look at the arts and crafts for sale.“I like that you can see that the stuff is all handmade,” she said.Debbie Carter of Polk, Venango County, said she takes her grandchildren to Strawberry Days every year because it is one of the first outdoor events of the summer for the area.“It's nice they have a lot to do; a lot for the kids to look at. We like the entertainment too,” she said.Jessica Devos of Grove City said she was with the Midget Football group, but wanted to get some Amish doughnuts, which are always popular.“I was here yesterday to sell strawberries and today I just came for doughnuts,” she said.
