Cranburians with a sweet tooth will have a great chance to appease their cravings this weekend at the annual Strawberry Festival.
By:Brian Shappell
Cranburians with a sweet tooth will have a great chance to appease their cravings this weekend at the annual Strawberry Festival.
The First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury will hold its annual Strawberry Festival from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday. The event is a fund-raiser to benefit the deacon’s food basket program and the church’s benevolent fund to help the needy in the area, including parts of Trenton and Cranbury.
When people arrive, they will find this sweet tradition has grown quite a bit since last year.
"This is the big fund-raiser for the First Presbyterian Church," said Marie Wanat, organizer of this year’s festival. "This is going to be the largest Strawberry Festival."
As of Wednesday, the church had sold 118 family passes to the festival. It is the first time a pre-event ticket sale has been run for the popular event. The church has topped last year’s festival attendance of 250. Last year’s event raised about $700; however, turnout may have been low because of impending rain.
Those attending the four-hour event will get to enjoy all of its usual perks, like the traditional ice cream/strawberry shortcake desert, more than a dozen games for kids, chip-and-putt golf, face painting and plenty of barbecue grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.
This year Ms. Wanat, a West Windsor resident running the festival for the first time, added a new, large wrinkle in the form of hourly attractions.
At 4 p.m., there will be a children’s parade called Mrs. K’s Magical Musical March, where youngsters will be given tambourines and cymbals to play along with trumpeters and flutists. One hour later, children will have the opportunity to meet members of the Cranbury Police Department and sit and check out the inside of a real police car. At 6 p.m., the Mercer County/Central Jersey Scottish Dancers will perform. The final special attraction, at 7 p.m., will allow children to tour fire trucks and meet Cranbury’s firefighters.
In all of the hoopla on Saturday, people may forget that this year’s festival was nearly canceled because of the overbooked schedules of the board of deacons, which traditionally runs the festival.
That was until Ms. Wanat, a six-year church member, stepped up and volunteered to chair the event. Ms. Wanat said she has truly enjoyed the experience.
"It’s been fun. There has been tremendous support from people," she said. "In the past four months I’ve met more people from the church than I met in four years at the church."
Ms. Wanat and Heidi Noltan, coordinator of the indoor events and food purchases, said they both are looking forward to the friendly atmosphere.
"It’s just a nice tradition," Ms. Noltan said. "It’s fun meeting people in the community and working together. I hope this keeps growing."