July 16–22, 2008, Number 501
Copper Country Strawberry Festival
Mmm, mmm, mmm delicious, can't beat the taste of fresh strawberry shortcake with whipped cream topping! This past weekend was Strawberry Festival in Chassell, Michigan. Many of the locals came out in celebration of this year's crop and it was great. This week's article will discuss the happenings of Strawberry Festival for those of you who have never heard of or been to it.
Strawberry Festival celebrated its 60th anniversary this year with locals and tourists abound. The history of this event is that it was way of commemorating the important strawberry export and its significance to this local community. With the town much quieter than it use to be, this festival definitely livens things up a bit. It is a wonderful time for both the locals and the tourists and provides lots of entertainment.
The festival starts on Friday and continues on into Saturday with different activities and parades for all ages. Events actually start on Friday morning with the serving of fresh strawberry shortcake, brats, hot-dogs, and other food items and this event lasts until 9pm. Local area vendors and crafters put out some of their handy work with local exhibits and sales for people to purchase. Holy Trinity Church is the site of the quilt show, where anyone wishing to contribute a quilt can compete with others for prizes. Of course, what kind of festival would this be if the strawberries weren't judged from each of the local farms and prizes being awarded for the best? You can bet there's plenty of taste testing going on. Friday evening concludes with several events. These being the Children's parade, the Adult/Youth Citizen of the Year awards for Chassell, Strawberry Auction and the Strawberry Queen Crowning. The final event of the night then is a dance at the Chassell VFW post for anyone to attend.
The Strawberry Queen competition this year was great. Many of the local area girls were very beautiful in their evening gowns and were extremely friendly. However, there can only be one winner, and this outstanding young lady was Helen Richards. The Daily Mining Gazette out of Houghton has a complete story online called Berry Best, I encourage you all to check it out. Each of the ladies deserves a big round of applause for all their help with the festival and within the community.
Saturday kicks off the last day of the festival with Pancakes and Sausage breakfast served by the Chassell Senior Class as well as other food items served again all day. Local vendors stepped out one more time to set up exhibits of their arts and crafts for sale and allowed people one last chance at purchasing some crafty goodies. At 11am was the official Strawberry Festival parade with all the Queen candidates riding in mustangs, the Citizen of the Year and the Young Citizen of the Year winners. Of course, there were other groups that created floats and other parade type attractions for this event. There was live music by The Polka Drifters", free rides on the Agassiz research vessel, a fashion show, and children's games. So as you can see there wasn't a dull moment during this festival; plenty to do, see, and eat!
I've probably said this once or twice before, but I can't help but reiterate how much I really enjoy the local area people. They are all so friendly and inviting and this festival is such a treat, literally! The folks who live in Chassell and worked so hard to put this year's festival on for everyone did a wonderful job and I am extremely grateful. For more information about this year's festival as well as future festivals, check out these websites: Copper Country Strawberry Festival, Celebrating Strawberry Festival", and Agassiz trips a part of festival".
A heads up for those of you that are interested! Starting next week, I'll be devoting my next two articles to Orientation week happenings. This way all of you can have the necessary information about what takes place for the students as well as the parent participation in this week. If there are any questions or comments about this week's article, please email me at my personal email address. As always, any suggestions for future articles are welcomed.
Until next week,
- Michigan Technological University
- 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295
- 906-487-1885