[P]arishioners at Newfane’s First Congregational Church know when local leaves flame orange, countless motorists who are backed up for miles in bumper to bumper traffic burn red.
But they have good reason for clogging traffic on southern Vermont’s Route 30 artery every Columbus Day weekend.
Their annual Heritage Festival on the crowded village common rakes in more than $30,000.
Vermont’s better-late-than-never fall foliage season this year is expected to attract 3.5 million visitors who’ll spend a collective $460 million in six short weeks, state officials report.
“That represents just over 25 percent of annual tourist spending,” says Laura Peterson, communications director for the Department of Tourism and Marketing. “It’s really concentrated compared to winter, which is a much longer season.”
But while economists focus on the money made by stores, restaurants and hotels (or in the case of social media, “The Guy Who’s Selling Fall Foliage Online for $19.99,” Money magazine reports), some community nonprofits are reaping tens of thousands of dollars through a variety of fundraisers.
Tourists who sneaked into the Dummerston Congregational Church before Sunday’s 46th annual Apple Pie Festival could snap a photo of 1,500 freshly baked confections waiting in the pews of the nearly 175-year-old white-clapboard citadel.
Volunteers have worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for two full weeks to turn 90 bushels of fruit, 950 pounds of flour and 400 pounds each of sugar and shortening into pies. Baking 36 tins at a time in three onsite pizza ovens, they annually prepare for out-of-towners in cars, campers and motorcycles who double if not triple the town’s usual population of 1,864, all before swallowing up everything in a matter of hours.
The congregation’s reward: a “net” of about $17,000 —one-sixth of its yearly budget — to maintain a building that doubles as the town polling place and community center.
“Without it,” church treasurer John Wilcox says, “we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
Such sentiments are echoed at the nearby fire department’s pancake breakfast and Evening Star Grange’s craft fair, as well as throughout neighboring venues for Newfane’s 45th annual Heritage Festival.
The 96-vendor food and crafts event — attracting an estimated 10,000 people Saturday and Sunday to a town of 1,726 — showcases more than color. Since 1971, it also has served as the largest single fundraiser for the Newfane Congregational Church, having collected some $35,000 in profit last year alone.
“That’s one-quarter to one-third of our budget,” church bookkeeper Billie Stark says.
For people stuck in the resulting traffic, the church devotes an entire page on its website to an explanation of how proceeds benefit a historic building that houses everything from after-school programs to Al-Anon meetings to senior meals and blood pressure checks.
“Supporting this event,” says Sandy Hamm, the minister’s wife, “supports the entire community.”
State tourism officials are hopeful that continued sunny weather and foliage that’s finally hitting its peak after a summer-like September will lead to a lucrative fall season.
Nodding in agreement, members of the NewBrook Fire and Rescue Department — an all-volunteer collaboration between the towns of Newfane and neighboring Brookline — take advantage of the Heritage Festival traffic to stand in the center of Route 30 with a “coin drop” sign.
Collecting spare change and small bills in rubber firefighter boots, they estimate they’ll amass upwards of $8,000 for a new $290,000 tanker truck.
“This is one of our bigger fundraisers,” Chief Todd Lawley says. “It does quite a bit to help us with our expenses.”
Kevin O’Connor, a former staffer of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, is a Brattleboro-based writer. Email: kevinoconnorvt@gmail.com
