Holly Morgan hands a newly assembled strawberry shortcake to a Strawberry Festival attendee at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Wiscasset on Saturday, June 27. In the kitchen, a team formed an assembly line to create the dessert. (Lily Wasserman photo)
Hours before the Strawberry Festival at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church was set to begin at 10 a.m. on June 27, volunteers drove to Wilson Family Farm in Washington and picked 24 quarts of strawberries to sell fresh.
These quarts accompanied the 176 quarts of strawberries picked earlier for the shortcakes, 40 dozen biscuits baked in the past two weeks and 20 quarts of homemade whipped cream that went toward making the 72nd Strawberry Festival happen.
Stands lined the driveway of Wiscasset church, selling crafts and plants to visitors making their way to the parish hall in the back of the church. On the side of the hall, visitors could buy a shortcake from a quick service stand.
Beth Cowing Young, who has been volunteering for Strawberry Festival for 57 years, helped out in the quick-service stand among other roles. She and her sister, Pam Freeman, grew up in the church and consider it their home.
“When we come back here, all the women that came before us are in our hearts and in our minds and it feels like we are kids again,” Cowing Young said.
The women include their mother, whose biscuit recipe is still used for the shortcakes.
Inside the parish hall, visitors could buy a ticket for a shortcake, make a donation for treats from the bake sale or look at pies that would be auctioned off at noon.
Cecile Zorach came to the Strawberry Festival for the first time last year, after seeing it during a visit to her family in Georgetown.
“It was kind of a crappy day last year, kind of rainy. It was just a nice cheerful place to be, so we came,” Zorach said.
They enjoyed the food, thrift store and general ambiance, said Zorach. This year, her family looked up the date and made plans to go. Next year, her granddaughter will be old enough to enjoy the strawberries at the festival.
Besides eating shortcakes, the family spent time downstairs at the Bargain Basement Thrift Shop.
The church’s thrift shop, along with the Help Yourself Shelf, which provides donations to those in need, further the church’s mission of helping those in need. Sharman Ballantine, senior warden, is proud of what the church is able to accomplish despite having a smaller size.
“It’s a busy place. We’re not just a Sunday church,” Ballantine said.
One of Ballantine’s jobs as senior warden was launching the Forward in Faith fundraiser, which aims to raise money for preservation of the historic church. This includes repairing areas that receive a lot of foot traffic, such as the driveway, or mitigating the effects of groundwater beneath the structure.
The funds from Strawberry Festival do not go to the fundraiser. Instead, proceeds go into the general fund, which helps with everyday costs such as lighting. It is the sole fundraiser the church hosts.
Seaver Leslie, a past junior warden, was christened at church in 1947 and went to the first Strawberry Festival 72 years ago and most that followed. The festival founders wanted to have a celebration at the end of June, and strawberries were what was ripe at that moment.
“It was wonderful. It’s very similar to what we have today, with fresh berries and strawberry shortcake,” Leslie said.
The church’s mission has also remained the same since its founding, Leslie said.
Suzanne Colburn, the church’s priest-in-charge who arrived in October, said that it was the church’s goals of outreach and the building’s historic nature that stood out to her in her time so far.
Colburn described the festival as a “well-oiled machine” due to the capability of the members. Colburn hung posters for the festival in businesses around Boothbay Harbor and found most people had warm feelings about the event.
“By and large the response was, ‘Oh, of course, I love the Strawberry Festival, I’ve been going for years,’” Colburn said.
Minister of Music Terry Heller played piano in the parish hall throughout the event. She believes traditions are important in Wiscasset, as they give people reasons to gather.
“Tradition holds people together, it pulls them forward,” Heller said.
She volunteers for other community traditions but considers this one special.
“This festival is kind of the beating heart of the community … everything would fall down if we didn’t have the Strawberry Festival on the last Saturday in June,” Heller said. “It’s more of a tradition than tradition itself.”
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church is located at 12 Hodge St. in Wiscasset. For more information, call 882-7184, go to stphilipswiscasset.org, or email stphilips@wiscasset.net.
