Van Buren preps for 33th annual fall festival

VAN BUREN — Some new chefs helped make apple butter in preparation for the Van Buren Lions Club's 33rd annual Fall Festival and craft show on Saturday. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Van Buren School, 217 S. Main St. Admission and parking are free. Members of the school's FFA chapter learned the recipe firsthand from members of the Lions Club, cooking the concentrated applesauce in kettles over open fires. "This is the first year the kids have helped make apple butter, and it was a day, it was two days, but we made 721 jars of apple butter," said Hailey Cunningham, who is an advisor for the chapter along with Lindsey Bement. She said the cooking was done behind the ag shop at the high school. "We set up the kettles there. We cut all the apples. We mixed everything together. We jarred everything, and 721 jars later, we got it done," Cunningham said. The Lions Club debuted its Apple Butter Fest & Craft Show in 1989. This year, club members asked for some help making the sweet sauce which has become a tradition, Cunningham said. "The FFA has been gaining a little bit more attention and helping with the apple butter fest the past few years," she said, adding that 130 students in grades eight through 12 are enrolled in the program at Van Buren. Cunningham said the students had "a blast. I think at one point there were kids making s'mores on the fire. They were stirring the apple butter and then kids were making s'mores out there, too. They had fun with it." Members will be selling apple butter on Saturday. Part of the proceeds will come back to the chapter, she said. Students are also planning to have a petting zoo, kids games and a corn hole tournament, and they will sell cow pie bingo tickets for a chance to win $1,000, $750 or $500 on Oct. 21. The students are very involved in the community, Cunningham said. "We've got good kids out here." Visitors will find over 70 crafters and vendors inside the school offering everything from hand-crafted jewelry and wooden items to diamond art pictures and holiday décor. There will also be handmade soaps, lotions and candles for sale along with T-shirts, American Girl homemade clothing, bowl cozies, quilts and reclaimed wooden wine bottles, gnomes and decorated gourds. A variety of food items will be sold including candy, cocoa bombs/cake balls, homemade breads, jams, jellies and barbeque sauce. Additionally, several independent product representatives including Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Avon, Watkins Products and Tastefully Simple will be present. The Van Buren Presbyterian Church will offer bake sale items, and the Van Buren Music Boosters will provide inside concessions featuring homemade noodles and cheeseburgers. Outside, the Lions Club will make bean soup and cornbread over an open fire. Members will also collect old eyeglasses. For years, the club has been collecting gently used glasses for distribution to optical missions around the world. Other outside crafters and vendors will offer recycled metal art, several flavors of popcorn, roasted nuts, fall décor, mums and dried flowers, maple syrup and herb products for sale. The school's art department will have sidewalk chalk drawing available. Students will also sell pottery and glass bead necklaces. A demonstration by the Hancock County K-9 unit is scheduled at 10 a.m. in front of the school featuring Deputy Sonny and Deputy Tom Miller along with Matt Bostdorff, a volunteer training decoy. Hancock Public Health's mobile unit will be onsite providing wellness screening, immunizations and other health department services. Food trucks will include Kings Concessions, Shelley's Luncheonette and Kona Ice. The location of community garage sales that are also being held Saturday can be found on the village's Facebook page. The Allen Township Fire Department will celebrate its 150th anniversary of serving the community on Saturday. Activities will be held at and around the fire station, 103 S. Main St. Due to the size of the event, South Main Street will be closed from Ohio 613 at the village square to Walnut Street with a fire safety interactive trailer to view, a firefighter challenge, vehicle demolition by hand tools, extrication demo and food.