Coastal Point | Fall festivals for families, fundraising

Fall festivals for families, fundraising

By M. Patricia Titus
Staff Reporter



	Coastal Point •SUBMITTED Local band Scrapple will be performing at the fundraiser.

Sunday will mark the first-ever Fall Festival for Life — a family-friendly fundraising event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Delaware that is being organized by Marian Parrett, general manager of Bethany Beach’s Sedona restaurant.

Parrett’s friend Katie Savage, who had worked at the post office in Dagsboro, passed away about five years ago from leukemia, and that spurred Parrett to begin raising funds for the organization.

“I’ve been raising money for them for a while. … We started doing things for the Team in Training program,” Parrett explained, noting previous fundraisers held at Sedona. That program raises funds to sponsor runners and bicyclists in fund-raising sports events such as marathons and bike rides to benefit leukemia research.

“We wanted to do something bigger so we could send more athletes to do the Centennial bike ride,” Parrett said. “So I decided to do something bigger than what I normally do at Sedona.”

That “something bigger,” Parrett said, would also ideally provide a fun event for the coastal area’s families to attend at the end of the summer season.

“There aren’t a lot of things for families in our area to do together,” Parrett noted.

So she added together that goal with a fall theme, music, art and the area’s natural resources to create the Fall Festival for Life, a music and art festival set for Sunday, Sept. 10, from noon to 6 p.m. The festival will take place at Hi Point Farm on Cedar Neck Road, “right past James Farms Ecological Preserve,” Parrett said.

Diane Turner, owner of Hi Point Farm, and a friend of Parrett’s, agreed to host the event.

“The music is cross-generational,” Parrett emphasized. “The families can come out together, after Labor Day, and people who work hard all summer finally get a breather.”

The festival will feature six live bands, including Southern Delaware School for the Arts’ Plenty Problems with steel-drum/calypso music; the classic- and country-rock sounds of Overtime, with Indian River High School music director Mark Marvel; hard rock from Scrapple; duo Loose Endz; Southern rock from The Debbie Caldwell Band; and country-rock from Jimmy Bones and the Skeleton Crew.

Parrett also invited local crafters and participating artists from the Bethany Beach Boardwalk Art Festival, organized by the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce and set for the day prior to the fundraiser, on Saturday, Sept. 9.

“There will be about 20 of them,” Parrett said. And that may be the early count. Parrett said the art portion of the festival is open to any exhibitor who is interested in participating, from those fine artists who participated in the Saturday show to lesser-known local artists. “This is not a juried show,” she emphasized. “They can come out, and if they have a great day, they can give a donation if they wish.”

Along with all the art and live music, the festival will have a fall theme, Parrett noted, including a weight-guessing contest featuring a chubby orange pumpkin, to kick the season off in style.

But that pumpkin isn’t on the menu for the event. What is on the menu is food supplied by Bethany Blues restaurant in Bethany Beach. And Parrett said chef Lee Talbot will also be offering steamed shrimp and local corn on the cob, donated by a Seaford farmer.

Desserts will be provided by Dangerously Delicious Pies, and there will also be Cookies by Katherine at Sunday’s event.

In addition, the Fall Festival for Life will feature kayak rides by Eco-Bay Tours, a petting zoo to delight the kids, and nature walks and talks.

“It’s family-oriented,” Parrett emphasized. “We’re inviting everyone to enjoy a beautiful sunset by bay and bring a beach chair to relax if they want.”

“I just want everybody to come out and have a really nice day, hang out with friends and family and raise a little money for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Delaware,” Parrett said.

“It’s a big issue in area. There a very few people here who have not been affected in one way or another,” she emphasized, recalling the impact of the disease on the then-12-year-old daughter of her friend Katie Savage.

Parrett said she had selected the LLSD as her cause because of its efficiency as a charity. “A lot of the money goes directly to research, which is what we really need to do to stop people from dying from this — if we can prevent that from happening to some other kid or other person… There’s not as much government funding as there used to be, so private fundraising is critical.”

Admission to the Fall Festival for Life, by donation, costs $15 for adults and $10 for students. Children 5 or younger get in free. Additional donations to the LLSD can also be made at the event.

For more information on the Fall Festival for Life or to find out how to participate in the event, contact Parrett at (302) 233-0415.