Certain things in life are a rite of passage—births, marriages, first jobs.
For me, the Kent Chocolate Fest ranks up there, too.
I first experienced this unique fundraiser many years ago—too many to accurately remember.
At the time, I was working at The Spectrum, a weekly news publication based in New Milford that also covered Kent, and I was assigned to photograph the event.
I didn’t know what to expect that first time but once I left, I think I may have written it in my calendar for the following year with a Sharpie.
Yes, it’s that cool of an event.
It’s a creative way to raise funds for a good cause (the Kent Center School Scholarship Fund) and to bring a great group of volunteers together for a common purpose.
I also love it because it’s a colorful event to photograph. There’s a variety of chocolate-themed baked goods with embellishments and, more importantly, friendly volunteer-servers and happy attendees that make their way through a buffet-style line choosing the treats they want to eat there or take home.
Of course, the chocolate does add a little something extra to the event for me. I mean, really, who can cover an event like that without going home with a plate (or two) of assorted homemade chocolate treats for $5?
Unfortunately, it’s been a few years since I attended the Chocolate Fest due to Covid and my departure from The Spectrum at the end of 2020. However, I was fortunate to step back into the field Feb. 12 to cover the event for the Kent Dispatch.
With my teenaged daughter in tow this year—we’ve got a chocolate bond —I excitedly headed to the school to cover the event I had missed for several years.
I knocked on the school’s main door and, just as in years past, a volunteer greeted me with a smile and let me in early to take photographs of the setup and last-minute volunteer prep in the kitchen.
I didn’t recognize the two greeters at the check-in table, Karen Iannucci and Ane Starr, but I introduced myself and reminisced about my days talking with the late Charlotte Lindsey, who used to welcome patrons at the door.
Lindsey, who died Dec. 2, 2023, brought the idea of a chocolate fest to the scholarship committee, which presented its first festival on Feb. 12, 1996. I missed seeing her there.
Then I discovered a familiar face, former Kent Center School Principal Ed Epstein, at the table behind me. Ed (he doesn’t like to be called Mr. Epstein) has manned the table with prepackaged plates of chocolate for years.
He is also president of the scholarship fund, which just last year presented 34 scholarships totaling $115,400.
As I headed toward the cafeteria, Lee Sohl greeted me. I didn’t think anyone I recognized would remember me because it had been so long since I was there and, let’s face it, we all age. I look a little different now than I did some six years ago.
She smiled and said she remembered me and directed me onward to the venue.
Once inside the cafeteria, I immediately recognized many of the volunteers, all of whom donned aprons and smiles as they frosted cookies in the kitchen while others arranged chocolate bites on trays and set them on the tables for patrons.
I reintroduced myself to the familiar individuals, but whose names had slipped my mind. “Ah, that’s right,” I remembered as I confirmed their names. Among them, Carol Spelbos, Tony Iovino, Katy Armstrong, Fran Goodsell and Kathleen Robey.
They nodded in assurance that they remembered me, and they all said they were happy the publication was there to cover the event (see photos of this year’s event here).
I looked all about—the volunteers moving around setting up for the start of the event, the wall that was lined with a few nonprofit groups and representatives from each, the youth and their parents waiting outside in a line that wound around the corner of the front of the school on a cold winter day.
One child even peered into the cafeteria, his face right up against the locked double glass doors, apparently eager to scope out the goods ahead of time.
My shoulders settled – I didn’t even know they were up! – and I confidently smiled. It was all so comfortable, so familiar, and so welcoming. It felt as if had never missed a Chocolate Fest.
Thank you, Kent, for your traditions and for welcoming me back to the community and making it feel like home.
Deborah Rose is assistant editor of the Kent Dispatch. The views expressed here are not those of Kent News, Inc., the parent company of the Kent Dispatch.
