Another summer has arrived which means another Strawberry Festival is in the books. While the Brandywine Health Foundation is already planning for next year, the members of the Thorndale Volunteer Fire Company are enjoying the much earned break.

For the Thorndale Fire Company, the Strawberry Festival starts way before that first Thursday of the event. It starts with members taking inventory of supplies to rope off the fields for parking, checking on the flashlights, reflective vests and other items needed for all the volunteers, but most importantly visiting the local businesses to gather donations of food that will feed the company of volunteers for the duration of the festival. Napoleon Bonaparte said “an army marches on its stomach”, and the same is true for all those who helped over the course of those five days. This post is to thank and honor those local businesses who unselfishly gave plenty of food to keep the volunteers on their feet, donated transportation to keep us moving, and technology to enable us to provide better service to the community.

The first day for our members starts on the Wednesday before the festival in which some our members set up all the fields for parking, strategically position all the traffic message boards that are donated by surrounding fire companies and municipalities and secure any remaining supplies necessary. This process usually kicks off with an early breakfast and ends long after the sun has retired. For the remainder of the festival the volunteers are broken into groups that handle parking in several lots, traffic control on Reeceville Road, people to take money for parking, Command to run the show and of course there are those invaluable people that do nothing but constantly bring food and drink around to all the volunteers so they can stay in their position until the company breaks down after the festival has ended. This process ends late Sunday afternoon. It may not seem like much for an outsider, but for the members that donate their time it can be brutal. Most if not all the members work their regular 40 hour job and then put in another 40 at the festival. Our volunteers are drawn from our members, as well as friends and family and put in over 1,000 hours when all the planning and securing all the supplies and the festival time are counted in.

These local businesses stepped up to help their community and without their support, it would be a very tough five days, if possible at all. The members of the Thorndale Volunteer Fire Company would like to sincerely thank each of the businesses that supported us during the Strawberry Festival and hope that you will help us again next year:

Caln Township for use of the golf carts
Caln Pizza and Pasta
Joey’s Pizza
Jacks Pizza
Dairy Queen
Mister Wok
Buffalo Wild Wings
Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Chester County
Primo Hoagies
Midway Grill
Little’s John Deere for the use of the ATV
Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company Sta. 36 for the use of their ATV

We would like to thank the following Fire Companies and Municipality for the use of their traffic message boards:
Paoli Fire Company Sta. 3, Honey Brook Fire Company Sta. 33, Westwood Fire Company Sta. 44, East Brandywine Fire Company Sta. 49, and two large sign boards from the Borough of Downingtown.