For those of you who follow this blog and are not familiar with the greater Kennett Square community…we are into mushrooms. Mushroom houses dot the landscape and are a big business for our community. In some ways the Mushroom Festival Parade reminds me of the June Dairy Parade in Cortland, NY. In NY the dairy cow was a significant piece of the local economy and each June there was a parade to honor and celebrate that piece of the community. I love the way smaller towns have the ability to celebrate those things which make them unique.
This year JAM Christian Daycare had a float in the parade. There were families from the daycare who got to ride through town in celebration of the opening of the Mushroom Festival. Again, for those not familiar, yes it is a real festival. We shut down the main section of town for two days and have thousands of people come to celebrate an important piece of our economy. You can get just about anything mushroom…including mushroom flavored ice-cream.
Natalie and myself sporting our mushroom hats for the parade
It is good to be an active part of what goes on within our community. Along with helping promote the mushroom industry and celebrating what it means for our local economy the festival provides grants to local service organizations. “This year the Festival awarded $85,000 in grants and donations, bringing its total awards to $805,000 since 2000.” (quoted from mushroom festival website) The festival is a perfect blend of promotion and service to our community.
First Baptist Church has a booth at the festival where people can enter a few free raffles and get more information about the many ministries of the church. JAM Daycare has some free activities for the kids and the playground is open for families to take a little rest stop from all the walking. We also open our church restrooms to the festival goers…it is a simple and easy act of service for our community.
I thought you might enjoy some of the pictures taken from the parade. Thank you to Jessica, Jess, and Jennifer for their great camera work! Thanks to Don Poole Jr. for arranging and driving our tractor and trailer for the parade! No, Nancy will NOT be driving the tractor next year no matter how cool she thinks that would be. Jessica, we start Monday working on the bubble machine for next year! 🙂
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