This year the Brandywine Health Foundation held the annual Strawberry Festival the weekend of May 31st to June 3rd. What a weekend it was! The volunteers of Thorndale Volunteer Fire Company spent many hours preparing for the event on Wednesday May 30th. They had to prepare all the fields for parking and set up all of the equipment and signage to accomplish the large task at hand.

Once Thursday came around it was time to get to work. All four days of the festival, the fire police provided traffic control at the main entrance to one of the parking lots. This year, the weather did not look good going into the festival as rain was in the forecast for all four days. Both Thursday and Friday were very hot ad humid but that didn’t stop the people from coming in and enjoying the festival! The steady stream of cars kept our volunteers busy throughout both nights. Friday night the fireworks were a huge success and our lower parking lot was especially busy for those who want to view the show from their car prior to going into the festival. Both Thursday and Friday, our volunteers parked thousands of cars.

Despite a few downpours on Saturday, there was always a line of cars waiting to park! We had to shut down our lower parking lot due to poor parking conditions but our volunteers quickly stepped up to help out at the main parking lot. Due to the weather, our three chief’s and lieutenants had to think quick on their feet to come up with multiple plans to park the lines of cars safely without getting stuck in the mud. They did a fantastic job and made it possible to continue to park the line of cars waiting to come in and make sure all the volunteers were safe and happy. The weekend came to a close on Sunday with a cloudy and chilly day. Despite the cold temperatures that did not stop the public from coming in! We had a steady line of cars waiting to park. As some collected money, directed traffic and parked cars, others were working on cleaning everything up before the evening came to a close. It was a great weekend that required a lot of hard work by all.

During these five days, it’s imperative that the volunteers stay hydrated, fed and healthy. Squad 38 drove around constantly handing out drinks and food to those collecting money and parking cars. Without the help of some of the businesses in our township and surrounding townships, we would not have been able to do those three things! The Thorndale Volunteer Fire Company would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following places for their food, drink and/or gift card donations:

Abdala Insurance/APA Tax, Coatesville
Acm, Thorndale
Belfor Property Restoration
Buffalo Wild Wings, Downingtown
Caln Pizza and Pasta, Thorndale
Chick-Fil-A, Downingtown
Dominos, Thorndale
Giant, Thorndale
Jack’s Pizza, Coatesville
Little Anthony’s, Coatesville
Midway, Thorndale
Okinii, Thorndale
Olive Garden, Downingtown
Papa John’s, Thorndale
Pizza Box, Thorndale
PJ Whelihan’s, Downingtown
Wegmans, Downingtown
Wendys, Thorndale

The words “thank you” hardly seem enough. Thanks to these businesses, we were able to make sure the volunteers had enough to drink, eat and stay healthy during the long weekend! Next time you find yourself going out to eat, please keep the above businesses in mind when choosing your destination, as the above establishments always go above and beyond to help our organization!