ChocolateFest enjoys strong run on wings of good weather
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
With temperatures in the 80s for most of the holiday weekend and no rain until Monday afternoon, Burlington’s ChocolateFest enjoyed what festival president Bil Scherrer is calling its best-ever Memorial Day weekend.
“Pam Wanasek put it best,” Scherrer said. “We gave our Friday gate proceeds to Love, Inc., and were rewarded threefold with great weather and great attendance.”
A switch Friday night also paid big dividends for Love, Inc.’s food pantry.
With the “Pack the Pantry” event on Friday – visitors to ChocolateFest could get in with five non-perishable items for the pantry or $5 – there were several trucks loaded with food.
Love Inc. Executive Director Bill Schoessling said that, plus a recent $5,000 donation from Richter’s Marketplace for their annual drive, should get the food pantry through the summer months.
While the festival helped out Love, Inc., weather helped out ChocolateFest. Rain didn’t even enter the forecast until Monday, and Saturday and Sunday were breezy, sunny and comfortably in the high 70s to low 80s.
When the rain did come on Monday, most of the heavy storms stayed away from Burlington.
“The big rain was to the north and to the south,” Scherrer said. “Burlington was spared from a crowd-scattering rain.”
In an email to the ChocolateFest board, Scherrer said turnstile counts were up 25 percent over 2013. Final numbers were still being tallied this week.
He expected that the festival would meet all of its expenses, make pay outs to volunteer groups and even wind up with a modest profit.
“That small profit can be allocated for infrastructure improvements, or for a rainy day fund,” Scherrer said.
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9 yrs of volunteer counselor memories
I’ve been a counselor for LifeChoices in Burlington since 2004. My son was just 6 weeks old our first year volunteering for ChocolateFest. He was snuggled in his car seat while I manned the volunteer “tent” (future years we had a trailer and this year we were so spoiled with a whole 24’x70’ garage!!) My job was to assign our volunteers their sections for grounds keeping. It is certainly not a glamorous job – but someone has to do it. I remember what a humid year 2005 was, you could almost see a fog in the air. It rained off and on as well (What would ChocolateFest be without at least one rainy day?) Logan had just gotten over a cough and I didn’t like keeping him out in the moisture but it was worth it to support LifeChoices mission – the funding that LifeChoices gets from ChocolateFest is pivotal for our ministry!! Thank you to all the volunteers over the years – most of them return every single year – you are so faithful!!
There have been many heartwarming days as a counselor…. hearing a mom accept her role of motherhood and “choose” to keep her baby, or a teenager watch a Focus on the Family movie about abstinence and really “get it”, or the wide eyed looks they get as they read some of our STD brochures…. (They come in thinking pregnancy is the worst thing that could happen with no thought to the more likely thing…..) watching a lost soul come to Christ through months of being loved on and then become a wonderful mother and believer, giving a lost teenager a bible of her very own to read, doing a parenting class for a couple willing to come together (once with an interpreter – so a bilingual counselor would be appreciated) helping a young lady gain the courage to tell her parents she was pregnant and that she wanted to keep the baby and finally watching a woman go through the process of forgiving herself through post abortion bible study.
But there were heartbreaking days as well…. Hearing one client coldly reply, “I’ve taken care of that already” when asked if she decided to keep her baby. (God help me, she was the only one I lost – but it still hurts) watching another melt into a bawling heap crying, “but I don’t want it – I was raped” when told her test was positive. (she ended up keeping that child by the way) Listening to teenagers tell tales of sexual exploits and parties and then comparing their sexually transmitted diseases. One really heartbreaking client was a man I spoke to at length on the phone – he was trying to get his wife to agree to talk to me about stopping what she had started doing out of desperation. She was pregnant and he was out of work and they were desperate so she somehow got involved in prostitution because there is apparently a “niche market” for pregnant girls – even in our small town of Burlington….
Now, I don’t want to end on such a sad note. But, I am hoping it is a wake up call to the work being done through LifeChoices and the importance of this ministry!!
As I sit here in my 4 layers and two blankets waiting for the fair to close so I can check in all the crews and turn in radios (such a beautiful day and yet when the sun goes down…. my phone is telling me it is 52* Brrrr) I am still encouraged, perhaps this year more than previous years. We have new blood in the center with new board members and new leadership, several new counselors and a new website. St. Mary’s Right to Life group and Catholic Knights have been a huge blessing as well in recent years!
We are changing with the times. When I started counseling we were Crisis Pregnancy Center in the basement of a house that had a law firm on the main floor. People had to go to the back door and down the basement stairs for their appointments. Now we have a beautiful office across from the Public Library with a beautiful “Baby Boutique” for our expectant moms. We are planning a Gala event this year to celebrate our 30th anniversary serving Burlington – Wow 30 yrs!!
This year is the first year we had a baby born during the festival. She is 11 lbs and born May 21st (we don’t have her name yet) she is our third of this year and there is a fourth on the way. These babies give me encouragement! The idea that those moms can come here for support, education, post abortion healing, and love and a gospel message is encouraging.
Please continue to support LifeChoices through prayer, giving and volunteering.
In His Mighty Arms,