ChocolateFest is a major fundraising engine for Burlington’s community groups
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
The festival that helped put Burlington on the map has helped fund the community’s service clubs and organizations for more than 30 years.
“ChocolateFest is the conduit to get all the small groups together to do something on a large scale,” said festival Operations Committee President Bil Scherrer.
And Scherrer should know. He’s served in his current position for the past 19 years. He calls the volunteer work hours logged by him and the members of the Operations Committee “a part-time job.”
Many of the committee members take vacation from their regular careers in the weeks and days leading up to ChocolateFest to make sure things runs smoothly.
“Together, we get it done,” Scherrer said.
Those efforts have paid off – not only in the notoriety for Burlington, but in cold, hard cash that is poured back into civic and charitable projects throughout the community.
Scherrer estimates that since its inception, the festival has funneled $2.6 million back into the community through the church groups, schools, booster clubs and civic organizations that provide the volunteer workforce for the festival, which opens Friday evening and runs through Memorial Day.
This year’s festival will feature many of the favorite activities of year’s past – chocolate carving, eating and cooking contests, musical entertainment and what Scherrer describes as the best traveling carnival in the country.
This year a fourth stage, the Café Stage, has been added to the area near the food court. The stage will host solo and small ensemble acts, according to Scherrer.
The key to the viability of the festival was a decision in 2005 to move the festival from the second weekend in May to the three-day Memorial Day weekend. Scherrer said the extra day has allowed the festival to remain in the black as it overcomes shortfalls in revenues due to inclement weather that invariably affects the festival for a day or two each year.
Although controversial at the time, the decision has since been judged as beneficial by many members of local veterans groups because the festival brings more people to the annual Memorial Day parade and ceremony.
According to Scherrer, the survival of the festival is key to the good works of the groups that benefit from the funds generated by ChocolateFest.
“We have a good team,” he said. “We all get along and we get the job done – which, ultimately, is a good thing for Burlington.”
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