10/02/08 — AppleFest® is Oct. 3, 4 and 5 in downtown Franklin. For details and times of specific events, go to www.franklinapplefest.com on the Web.



By Paul Adomites

SPECIAL TO THE MEADVILLE TRIBUNE

FRANKLIN, Venango County — During the first weekend of October every year, more than 100,000 people visit Franklin to enjoy the AppleFest® celebration (yes, it is now a registered trademark). And before, during and after AppleFest, hundreds of local people put their lives on hold to make sure that their visitors’ stays are pleasurable, if not memorable.

The festival itself features more than 300 crafts booths ranging from artsy to funky and back again, clothes decorated with apple themes, and food, lots of food. All kinds of food from kettle corn to kielbasa-n-kraut. There’s fudge that must have been made in Heaven, and apple dumplings that can feed two people easily. The farmer’s market offers a cornucopia of fresh-grown goodies you can take home. Robin Montgomery, for one, has been bringing her home-made honey and honey products like mustard, soap and lip balm to the AppleFest market for a dozen years.

There’s also music — this year it’s the fun-generating Earthquakers — and plays at the Barrow-Civic Theatre.

Sunday’s Car Cruise has taken on legendary status. Imagine more than 400 classic cars from ’Vettes to Volkswagen Bugs. Every red-blooded American man, and lots of women, too, will reach eyes-glazed-over status with the stunning array of motor mania.

Did we mention there’s an apple pancake breakfast and a 5K run in there, too?

One of the other things about AppleFest that makes it special is that the Franklin Chamber of Commerce is always eager to bring something new to the party. This year’s new addition is the already established Regional Best Chef competition. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to encourage enjoyment of home-made and home-grown Pennsylvania products, it will feature live cook-off battles among eight of the area’s finest chefs. They’ll come from as far away as Pittsburgh and Erie to wage kitchen warfare similar to TV’s “The Iron Chef.” But this competition is even tougher than the one you see on the Food Network. These chefs will have no assistants to make sure one dish doesn’t burn while the other gets stirred. It’s one-on-one. Even more intriguingly, in this contest each chef is given a basket of ingredients (only a handful of organizers know what they’ll be) and the chefs must use every one of the ingredients to create two dishes — a starter and an entrée, in just 30 minutes. Instructors from culinary institutes do the judging. It should be a hoot. By the way, Franklin’s own Sean Alcorn from Bella Cucina was the winner last year.

Willingness to change and grow is at the heart of the AppleFest idea. No one should ever feel he or she has seen it all before. As Carolee Michener, who was on the pie committee for the very first AppleFest, and is still “lady in charge” of the pie tent, says, “The whole thing just grew like Topsy.” One of the first things added were contests for kids. Then the crafts vendors asked to be there, and non-profit organizations were allowed to join in. As more people came, more people wanted to be involved.



The Apple Core gets it done

AppleFest is easy to enjoy, but it’s hard to appreciate what a mammoth task this once-just-a-pie-baking contest has become. Wrapping one’s brain around the dozens of perfectly organized, perfectly timed tasks that can be the difference between a rich, lively couple of days and a bungled, bumbling mess is a challenge to the best of planners. Luckily, the people who do AppleFest do it well; even better, they’ve been doing it for years.

The “Apple Core Committee,” the primary organizing group, has members who have been at it for two decades. Terry Ruditis, head of the Franklin Streets Department, puts it this way: “Because we plan, because we’ve done it before, we rarely have to solve big hassles in a big hurry. Most of the effort is fine-tuning.” Police Lieutenant Kevin Lewis says, “Even with our force staffing as high as 24 during the 5K race, and around 10 the rest of the time, we’ve been doing it for so long it’s more routine than anything else.”

Jim Williams, who has headed the Core Committee since 1988, attributes the festival’s success to one thing: “It’s the phenomenal spirit of cooperation among the city, the Chamber of Commerce and the volunteers. We know we are blessed with a great location and a beautiful venue, including our two parks. But that’s only the start. The volunteers really drive the event.” Many of the volunteers put their regular jobs on hold for the entire AppleFest week. When you talk to the volunteers, you are taken by how much they enjoy working with each other and doing what they do. They understand what this weekend means to the city and the region. Lynn Cochran, head of the Franklin Chamber, says, “AppleFest’s success is the direct result of the hundreds of volunteers who are willing to do whatever it takes and work together for the good of the event.”

The city workers begin their part at the end of August as they start hanging the banners that announce this year’s event on the city’s bridges and streets. The last week of September work begins on the park itself, sweeping, trimming trees and bushes and getting rid of trash. As Ruditis says of his Streets Department, “From then on everything that isn’t a huge immediate problem gets put on hold. It’s all AppleFest.” It takes the full staff of the Streets Department — six maintenance men and two mechanics — plus other volunteers. And it takes time. Last year the city’s contribution to the event was a remarkable 565 person-hours. The fire and police departments put in plenty of overtime, too, assuring smooth traffic and excellent safety all around town.



Retailer says ‘It’s a second Christmas’

Is it worth it? Niki Volmrich, proprietor of Feldman Jewelers, puts it this way: “For the retail community, it’s a second Christmas. It gives us a chance to show off special merchandise and have special events. Many people who become repeat customers first saw our store and our town during AppleFest.”

Guiseppe Barone, owner of Primo Barone’s Restaurant, says AppleFest is always a great week for his business. His location at the airport doesn’t seem to hurt. “People fly in from out of the area, have a meal, and our van takes them downtown for the festivities and then picks them up when they’re ready to go home.” Barone’s AppleFest connection goes back a ways, too. He was one of the judges at that very first pie-baking content in 1982.

Non-profit organizations also benefit from the crowds that come to the festival. They staff their booths with volunteers and sell items or food or just hand out information and collect donations. The local Cub Scouts have been loyal attendees for many years. The Literacy Council of Venango County takes a different tack. They’ll certainly accept donations, but mostly they offer free books to anyone who wants them, as many as you can carry. “We’re all about reading,” explains Peggy Stroupe, executive director, “so this gives us the chance to give back to the community in a special way. Last year we toted in 75 boxes of books, and only took a handful of books home.”

And on Sunday afternoon, when the last car from the car cruise has rumbled out of town and the city workers are cleaning up the park and the streets for the last time, somewhere not far away the members of the committee will be sitting together, sharing some pizza, and discussing what worked well and what could be improved for next year’s event. For the dedicated people of Franklin, AppleFest is a year-’round job. And that’s why those of us who come just for the weekend want to come back again.



Adomites is a regular contributor to Edge magazine, which is published by The Meadville Tribune. Emlenton-based Adomites specializes in writing about history, food and baseball. He also writes for and directs the Old Time Radio Troupe at Franklin’s Barrow-Civic Theatre.



This story originally appeared in Edge magazine, a publication of The Meadville Tribune. To learn how you can get Edge, call 724-6370.