Community Corner

Shortcakes and Parade a Traditional Fourth Recipe

Junior football players start serving strawberry shortcakes at 4 p.m. Saturday on the lawn at Town Hall. The parade steps off from Shirat Hayam at 4:30 p.m.

Red berries. A green lawn as expansive as an outfield.

Mix in a parade. A band. Cheerleaders previewing next season’s lifts and moves.

And Big Blue football players serving big red strawberry shortcakes for the Fourth of July.

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You’ve got a recipe for Americana.

“It’s a Norman Rockwell (painting),” said Anne Gold.

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Gold, Janell Cameron and Sharon Santry stood on the Town Hall lawn Tuesday a few feet from where football players will man the shortcake table Saturday at 4 p.m.

The three moms all have a hand in organizing Saturday’s festivities.

The Strawberry Festival is a tradition, they said.

They stood by the Strawberry Festival sign made by high school art teacher Reeva Oppenheim.

The sign with the big red strawberries gets hauled from the DPW barn to the Town Hall lawn each year to advertise the event.

Another tradition is it’s the juniors’ turn at the shortcake table, their turn to serve.

“The juniors have been waiting,” Gold said.

Many of the players have been playing football since they were little kids.

They’ve been coming to the Strawberry Festival and looking up to the big kids.

Now they are the big kids.

The senior football players are kings and get to ride in the parade, Santry said.

The parade steps off from Congregation Shirat Hayam on Atlantic Ave. at 4:30 p.m., marching to Town Hall.

The serving line opens on the lawn a half-hour earlier, at 4 p.m.

The preparations, however, start much earlier. 

Twenty-five flats of strawberries, enough for 600 shortcakes, get delivered in the morning to Hadley School.

Whole Foods Market is donating the strawberries and Newman’s Bakery is donating the cream of tartar biscuits.

The berries get sliced and chilled.

Six tables get carried from Hadley School to the lawn and the Rockwellesque scene unfolds.

The event is a major fundraiser for the football team and cheerleaders. It helps pay for items such as their uniforms.

Organizers hope to sell enough $3 shortcakes to raise $2,500.

The parade will include new additions and traditional entries, Cameron said.

Marchers will include the Caliope of Worcester Sound and Light and the Boston Windjammers, as well as local youth sports teams.

Some of those little kids might remember the big kids who will serve shortcakes Saturday and look forward to the time when they take their place in the serving line.


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