Strawberry Festival 2008

by Susan Gibbs, Record Reporter
Published: June 5, 2008

Frank Demko had his eye on the sky mid-day Saturday.
Demko had spent the last four months organizing the Stanardsville United Methodist Church’s 18th Annual Strawberry Festival, and thunderstorms—possibly fierce—were predicted for the afternoon.
“We were concerned about the weather, but it’s been holding steady,” Demko said, dropping his gaze from the sunlit skies to the crowd overflowing Stanardsville’s Court House Square.
The festivities had begun at 7 a.m. with a breakfast that consisted of plates heaped with pancakes topped with strawberries and whipped cream, sausage and scrambled eggs.
Four hundred-forty people came to breakfast.
The Church had prepared for a ‘berry good day that just started with breakfast by ordering up “640 pounds of Virginia-grown strawberries,” Demko added.
Apart from the breakfast and other treats, there were 120 strawberry pies and 50 strawberry cakes available for purchase.
Those were sold out by 9:30 a.m.
The fun was scheduled to run all day, with the Clover Leaf Square Dancers going on stage under the tent that had been pitched in the Square at 10 a.m.
Lunch, in the form of hot dogs and potato chips, was to start at 11 a.m. - when the Hi-Horse Cloggers pranced on stage—and for dessert, people could have strawberry cake, strawberry pie, a strawberry crepe or a ‘berry slushy.
At noon, the group, Greater Love Gospel Music walked on stage, to be replaced by The Deanes at 1 p.m.
But that was not all. There were vintage cars to admire, 14 different vendors to shop, and a couple of new attractions.
Greene County’s Habitat for Humanity put up a jail.
“Won’t you put somebody in jail?” asked Jonathon Hensley of passersby. “It’s $1 for each minute each person is in jail and $2 to get (a person) out.”
And, there was a Kids’ Corner, where kids could play games, get their faces painted and their nails done. It was run by the Church’s director of youth services, Amy Wayland.
“Our group is called the Circle of Friends, and we run the slushies, too. We made about $200,” said Wayland. “All proceeds will go to benefit children in the County … for food, school supplies, coats and so on.”
Demko estimates that in all about 500 people flocked to this year’s Strawberry Festival. The Church earned about $1,500.
That money, he says will go where it did last year: “To Habitat for Humanity and to the Food Bank; maybe (some) to an outreach program in Virginia.”
This year’s Strawberry Festival ended officially at 3 p.m.
The rains came about a half hour later