Applefest Saturday in Fair Haven

By Dan King
Applefest has been conducted annually by Fair Haven School for over 25 years now and the event helps raise funds for the grade school’s extracurricular activities.
This year’s Applefest takes place this Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Fair Haven Park.
There will be a farmers’ market, flea market, crafts, games, food and a myriad of different vendors present.
“People can find cider donuts, apple pies, jewelry and crafts,” said Kandi Ramey, secretary and bookkeeper at Fair Haven Grade, who coordinates the event.
“The grade schoolers here will be doing burgers, hot dogs, peppers and onions, that kind of stuff,” Ramey added.
If the food listed above wasn’t enough for you, the rotary club will be doing a chicken barbecue, there will be a cake wheel and the EEE students often do a bake sale.
Activities come and go from Applefest and different grade levels do different activities; but one of the perennial most popular events gives students the chance to drench their teachers.
“The middle schoolers do a balloon toss, where teachers sit under a target and students get to throw a water balloon at the target,” Ramey explained. “If they hit the target the teacher gets covered in water; we’ve been doing this activity for a while now.”
There will also be a book sale at the library from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a good variety of fiction and nonfiction for all ages. The best part of the sale comes at the 3 p.m. hour when the $2 bag sale begins.
Another big event during Applefest is the Fair Haven Historical Society Apple Pie Contest; this will be the sixth year that the Historical Society has held this contest.
All pies must be entered by 11 a.m. and the judging process will begin at noon. Every pie must be wrapped in clear plastic, must be at least eight inches in diameter and although bakers are allowed to use other fruit in their pies, the main fruit must be apple.
Ribbons will be awarded to the first, second and third place pies and after the contest, all pies will be sold by the Historical Society.
One new addition to this year’s Applefest will be the apple decorating contest, which has not been a part of the festival since 1995. Students 12 and under may enter the competition, which will be judged by the public for best in show. Entry time for the apple decorating contest is from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.