01 Oct Fall Fest 2024 . . . Sheer Perfection!
On September 28th, under partly cloudy skies, 861 Pawlingites (parents, grands, and their kiddos) came to celebrate the advent of fall with the members of Pawling’s Rotary Club . . . and everyone had a blast! As Fall Fest has grown to become a true community-wide event, so too have the smiles, laughter, volunteerism, number of fun activities to be enjoyed, and diversity of critters available for patting, petting, and cooing over.
Rotary’s friends at Cloverbrook Farm brought their lovely animals to share with everyone . . .The Cow pooped just after the last ticket to Cow Chip Bingo was sold and the $1,000 prize was won by Michelle Spielvogel. They also brought baby cows, goats and a mini pony, to everyone’s delight. Additionally, Rotary’s president-elect Carolyn Graziano brought her critters, and was happy to share Buddy the bunny and 20 two-week old baby chickens. Children were able to suggest a name for one of the baby chicks, and Chuckles was the hands-down winner!! She will join Flappy, Noodle, Nugget, and the rest of the chick family who were previously named. New to the Fest this year was Happy Life Animal Rescue, whose precious pups were available for doting upon and adoption. Roy Forster of HLAR was happy to report that seven pups found their fur-ever homes and one family is planning to return to HLAR’s location on Rt. 22 to complete their adoption soon.
Fun and games were provided by our event partner, Pawling Recreation, and the arts and crafts area had pumpkins for painting (happily donated by Dykman’s Farm) and Fest T-shirts for painting, while Pawling Taxi hosted a paint and sip activity for all budding Rembrandts. Face painting and glitter tattoos graced many a happy child’s face, and the Pawling Library offered a balloon pop game and a sensory bin for the littles.
And then . . . there was the Bouncy House! Kids lined up to bounce for four hours!
And then . . . forty kids participated in the Lacrosse demo led by Scott Snow.
And then . . . Kids romped in the Hay Maze (hay donated by Rotary friends at Easter Hay)!
And then . . . the Great Pumpkin, generously donated for the day by Mike Halas of Halas FarmMarket in Danbury, CT, and transported by Pawling Rotary friend Jonathan Dill, provided the perfect backdrop for many a family photo op!
And then . . . there was the BBQ . . . no one went home hungry!
And then . . . there was the impressive entertainment, brought to you by Rotarians Nick and Suzanne Madeo, that began with an amazing Karate demo offered by the kids at Brewster Karate followed by the incredible music of James & Jamie & Stuart Cairney, gifted acoustic guitarist Vincent Rodriguez, and concluding with the outsize talents of Rotarians Bill Flash from Patterson Rotary and Billy Hammond from Carmel Rotary, who are known as Dos Bills (two Bills…clever, no?).
And finally . . . this article would not be complete without a heartfelt thank-you to Wendel Weber and his crew from Pawling Recreation for all their hard work setting up Lakeside Park for this event; to the fifty Pawling teens who donated their time and youthful energy to help with the arts-and-crafts and fun-and-games events as well as the Shake Shack; to the many moms and dads who generously filled our donation jars; and, most especially, to the Pawling business community whose ongoing support, donations, and event sponsorships made this year’s Pawling Rotary Fall Fest a tremendous success!
–by Susan Stone