Applefest appealed to many ages
Wellsburg event features variety of live music and attractions
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WELLSBURG -- After a year's hiatus spurred by the pandemic, the Wellsburg Applefest came back in a big way, with food and other vendors lining Charles Street and a variety of live music and activities through each day.
There also were inflatable attractions, face painting and contests for children.
"We come down every year. My husband likes the gyros. We missed out on this last year so I looked forward to coming," said Valerie Henthorn as she surveyed assorted varieties of apples sold by Four Seasons Vegie Farms with plans to take some home to make her own dumplings.
Apple butter, dumplings, pies and cider could be found among the wide array of food sold.
Melanie Mitchell and her daughter, Chrissy, were among volunteers who manned a booth with pies, cider and T-shirts for sale for Cornerstone Christian Academy.
Lynnette Haizlett -- who with her husband, Will, were among its founders -- said the Beech Bottom school participated in the 2019 Applefest, not long after it opened.
She said currently the school serves children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade but "The goal is to add grade levels as we go."
Apples are a fitting commodity for the event, which was inspired by the discovery of the Grimes Golden variety of the fruit on a farm near state Route 27.
It's said that Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman, a real person who became a legend, provided the seeds for it to local farmer Thomas Grimes.
Visitors to the Brooke County Museum during the festival were invited to have their photos taken with a nutcracker Chapman wearing a large pot for a hat, as the traveling preacher often is depicted in books.
Vickey Gallagher, president of the museum board, noted the figure was on loan from Steubenville’s Nutcracker Village, adding that among the thousands of local artifacts displayed there is the Johnny Appleseed costume worn by the late Michael O'Brien, long-time Applefest chairman.
The event currently is organized by a group of volunteers, many of whom have been involved for many years, under the leadership of Frank Johnson and Ernie Jack.
In addition to seeing vendors' needs were met, the Applefest Committee organized such activities as a pumpkin carving contest, with parents and grandparents aiding children in using safety knives to produce their own jack o'lanterns on the Town Square.
Lined atop a wall not far away were painted pumpkins entered into another contest held by the Brooke County Public Library with support from the committee.
Library Director Alex Schneider and Kim Harless, the library's program director, noted normally the contest's participants would create them at the library.
But because of COVID-19, they dispensed with the normally large indoor gathering and supplied pumpkins to go, with their artists encouraged to return them during the festival for judging.
Janie Haught of Follansbee and her mother, Joan Wilson, were among many who turned out to support competitors in the pumpkin-carving event.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Wilson, who once ran a restaurant on Charles Street and was a member for more than 50 years of the Wellsburg Women of the Moose.
Asked what she enjoys most about the festival, she said, "The food. It's all good."
Haught said, "I like seeing old friends, the food and the entertainment."