While the YWCA of Bradford is ending a 90-year tradition by not
selling strawberry shortcakes this year, there’s still an
opportunity for people to have a berry good time at Bradford’s
Summerfest next week.
The YWCA Strawberry Festival will not be held this year due to
increasing costs of berries, sugar, gasoline and supplies,
officials said. However, the Downtown Business District Authority
has stepped up to the plate to provide the treats.
“The Downtown Bradford Business District Authority decided to do
the shortcake at Summerfest since the YW wasn’t able to do it this
year,” said Main Street Manager Diane DeWalt. She quickly added
they will not be carrying on the tradition to the extent that the
YWCA had done it in the past, with orders and sales to businesses
beforehand.
“We will be there Friday and Saturday at the car show,” she
explained, meaning July 21and 22.
“It’s an important part of the Summerfest, the strawberry
shortcake,” DeWalt added. “We’re just trying to pick up some of the
slack.”
The YWCA announced the decision in its newsletter that its board
of directors decided not to hold the sale this year.
“It’s been a tradition, but the board has decided not to do it
this year and will review it next year,” Interim Executive Director
Anneke Nuzzo told The Era Wednesday. “We don’t know what’s going to
happen next year.”
The sale has been the agency’s major fundraiser for several
years. The board is now looking at other fundraising ventures.
In recent years, the YWCA also offered the strawberry shortcakes
at the yearly Rotary Club concert.
“That was also something we did not do this year,” Nuzzo said.
“We can only do so much.”
While Nuzzo noted that the “community support has been
tremendous,” the fundraiser was no longer fruitful.
“It is also extremely labor intensive and time consuming for
YWCA staff and the troupe of volunteers,” the newsletter said. “…
Though it makes us all sad, it may be time for a change.”
In the last 30 years, the sales of the strawberry shortcakes
almost doubled, but that didn’t necessarily translate into
profit.
Last year, YWCA officials said the annual fundraiser was in
danger.
Former executive director Anita Ray said last July, the
Strawberry Festival was “limited to meeting (the YWCA’s)
needs.”
She said at that time, the organization would welcome
sponsorship to continue the tradition, which started as an ice
cream social in 1915. Last year, the YWCA used 120 flats of
strawberries and sold about 2,500 shortcakes to individuals,
businesses and clubs. Deliveries went as far as Salamanca, N.Y.
Traditionally, YWCA board members, staff and volunteers prepared
the shortcakes, which were typically sold the weekend of
Summerfest, Bradford’s annual downtown summer festival.
The festival, which was usually held in June, originally took
place at the YWCA. It then moved to downtown during the Summerfest
in July.
Services offered by the organization include housing and
employment services, a homeless shelter, temporary housing, help in
providing basic necessities immediately, the Supported Living
Program under the Mental Health Program, the Victims’ Resource
Center for domestic violence and sexual assault victims, child
services, counseling and a food pantry.
(Era Reporter Marcie Schellhammer contributed to this
article.)
