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Residents of Woodchoppertown didn’t have far to travel Saturday for a day of family fun, food and entertainment hosted by Ark Bible Chapel.
The Mennonite congregation sits in the heart of the unincorporated village in Earl Township.
Beth Glick said her husband, Dave, and other members of the church conceived the church’s first Fall Community Festival as a way of drawing area residents together.
“We really wanted to do something fun for the community,” Beth Glick said.
Some came on foot, she said, noting it was heartwarming to watch area families walking from their homes to church.
“Some pulled their children in wagons,” she said. “I loved that people could walk to the church.”
The event was also an opportunity to introduce the new Nature’s Play Zone, a playground on the church grounds. Built for neighborhood use by girls from the church’s Bible school, the play area features natural materials, such as logs, rocks and plants.
There is also a Little Library, a box where people can take a book or leave a book.
“It’s really a cute and unique little playground,” Glick said. “There’s a little outdoor kitchen, and there’s all kinds of wood chunks to climb on. It’s not like other playgrounds.”
A highlight of the event, she said, was a chainsaw carving demonstration by Randy Pieller of Boyertown. Pieller sculpted a large representation of a Boyertown Bear as a focal point of the new playground.
The church used the proceeds from a rummage sale to pay for the carving, Glick noted.
Musical entertainment was provided by Michael Disston playing the saw, accompanied by Karlton Glick on the washtub bass.
There was pumpkin painting for the children and a nature walk where kids and their families learned to identify trees by the fallen leaves.
Additional educational activities included a history of Woodchoppertown presented by the Earl Township Historical Society.
Community sharing activities included a rummage exchange where neighbors shared and selected outgrown clothes and other items at no cost.
Participants were also invited to contribute vegetables to the huge kettle of soup simmering over an outdoor wood fire.
Glick prepared the beef broth in advance, using 30 marrow bones and 15 pounds of beef donated by Andre Farms, an Oley Township market.
“We had this great, great stock and we had it going in the kettle,” she said. “I had cooked a bunch of barley and put it in there, so that helped to thicken it up. And then everybody put the vegetables in. It was so much fun and so good.”
About 150 people sat down to steaming bowls of hearty soup, she said.
For dessert, there were chocolate chip cookies donated by a church member who owns a baking business.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the day, Glick said.
“All it was, was a party to just get the community together, introduce them to our playground and have a good time,” she said. “It turned out exactly as we envisioned.”