by Andrea Kulesh
Another year and another successful Mayor West’s Maple syrup Festival. On Saturday April 6th, the Richmond Hill Historical Society joined in with this annual event at Richmond Green. Weather is always a consideration for outside activities and this year we were able to enjoy the day both inside and out. The event began at 10:00 a.m., continued through to 3:00 p.m. and was very well attended. The activities were expanded including wagon rides, taffy tasting and demonstrations for everyone to enjoy seeing how maple syrup is made. There was great entertainment, raffles and pancakes served with delicious maple syrup. Carrick Bros supplied the maple products we were selling this year for our annual fundraiser. They expanded their product list to include yummy maple cream, maple sugar and flavored syrup aged in bourbon, cherry brandy, apple brandy and even tequila barrels!
My personal favorite was the fellow on stilts dressed as a lumberjack. He was very entertaining, performed throughout the event, and was popular with young and old.
At the planning committee, numbers were being estimated to be more than last year. It was hard to tell this year with the surges of people entering the event but there were lots and lots of families enjoying the free pancakes and learning about how to make maple syrup. There will be a tally at our follow-up meeting but I’m sure it was well over 2000 people.
Our booth was very busy, and we were selling all day long. We had a bit of inventory returned at the end, but we did very well in a 5-hour fundraising effort. Jim will make a report when we get the final numbers tallied.
Thank you to members who attended and supported the Society and thank you to all of our wonderful member volunteers who made the day such a success! We thank Mayor West and his great team once again for including us as part of the event.
Richmond Hill Historical Society 