KENT – Sunny skies, strolling families, shops stocked with deals all made for a spectacular Springfest event May 4, hosted by the Kent Chamber of Commerce.
It was the first year for the event, which in some ways was a merger of the summer Sidewalk Sale Days and the now defunct Champagne Stroll.
Many families could be seen early in the afternoon walking Main Street and visiting the non-profits in the Golden Falcon Field. Groups had several activities for children, such as the Kent Garden Club, which had coloring pages of plants and flowers to color, the Merryall Center had a wheel to spin that directed which prize could be won, and Resident Trooper Vicky Donohoe was giving away small first aid kits with Band-Aids. TradesUp was guiding children through using hand tools to saw wood and hammer nails.
The chamber decided to offer a Sip and Stroll for the last three hours of the afternoon and 28 shops and organizations participated in this portion.
Coordinators and chamber officers Gary Kidd and Ellen Corsell were pleased by the turnout. Kidd, who runs 45 on Main Coffee & Creamery, said he couldn’t believe how many people were out walking around and enjoying themselves.
“I had to close part of the parking lot because so many people were dancing,” he said of the response to bagpiper Jesse Ofgang.
The weather couldn’t have been better, was a refrain heard repeatedly that afternoon. Sunshine, a light breeze and a few clouds made for a very pleasant spring day to walk around the 40 different locations that were participating.
Friends Rebecca da Silva, Charlene Chillious and Heather Scofield enjoyed sampling the variety of foods offered at different locations, especially while they visited the art in several galleries in the Kent Barns area.
“This has been fun,” said Scofield as she perused Lynette’s Precocious Preserves booth on Main Street. Da Silva enjoyed sampling the huge chocolate-covered strawberries offered for sale.
There were a wide variety of beverages offered by the many businesses and organizations. There were plenty of options of wine, champagne and prosecco, but there were also a number of cocktails. 45 on Main had expresso martinis that blended Kahlua with Sacred Grounds Coffee among other libations. Lynette Hatfield even shared her recipe for “sparking strawberry rose’sangria” that began with two pounds of ripe strawberries, to which she added her own preserves, lemons, oranges, rose wine and lemonade.
Connie Manes at the Kent Land Trust booth in front of Kent Wine and Spirit on Bridge Street came up with her own mocktail recipe for “Violet Femme” that included an infusion of violets (soaked in water) along with lemon juice and a few other ingredients.
“We wanted to do something fresh and local,” Manes said. They were also distributing materials about invasive plants, complete with photographs and charts of when is the best time to remove them. She and Melissa Cherniske engaged visitors in conversation about how to tackle invasives over time, sometimes as much as three years.
“We were very pleased,” said Lyn Stirnweiss, administrative director for the chamber. “The weather was great.”
There were a total of 172 tickets sold for the event (94 online and 78 on Saturday), which means the chamber raised $3,440 from the event.
She said that $5 from each ticket sold would be donated to the Kent Food Bank and that $1,170 is being donated. Of that total, $310 was from separate donations that were made online towards those dealing with food insecurity.
