Celebrate autumn with Rotary’s Harvest Fest

Date: 10/4/2011

Oct. 5, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — Food, fun, music and more will highlight the Agawam Rotary Club’s upcoming Harvest Festival and Family Fun Day, slated for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 22.

All events are slated to take place at the Veteran’s Green, located on the grounds of Phelps Elementary School on Main Street.

Event Chairman and City Councilor George Bitzas said the Rotary is hoping residents will come to the Green to spend time with neighbors and friends.

“If this year is successful, we plan to host it next year in School Street Park,” Bitzas said.

Among the activities Bitzas said he hopes will draw a crowd is an antique car show, which he expects to draw “50 to 70” exhibitors with antique cars from a variety of eras. The day will also feature music by a live DJ, appearances by the cast of characters from Six Flags New England, a farmers’ market and face painting, games and a bounce house for the children.

At 1:30 p.m., the 75-piece Agawam High School Marching Band, known as the Marching Mohawks, will perform songs from this season’s field show “New Orleans: From Sinners to Saints.” Among the tunes they may play that afternoon are “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?,” “Little Liza Jane,” “House of the Rising Sun,” “Voodoo,” and “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In.”

The day will also feature plenty of food; with vendors offering such fair favorites as fried dough, cotton candy and cider, as well as hot dogs, hamburgers and sandwiches. Among the special treats available at the Harvest Festival will be apple pies baked by the Agawam Senior Center’s chef, Carol Berncki. Friends of the Agawam Senior Center spokesperson Emile Coté said his group would be selling the pies by the slice and by the whole pie at the event to raise money for a new van for the center. Coté said the price for Berncki’s pies are set at $2.50 per slice and $12 per pie.

Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com