Beautiful weekend fall weather brought an at least 30,000 visitors to the 51st Hope Heritage Days on the historic Hope Town Square.
The 51st Hope Heritage Days, presented by Heritage of Hope, offered a hearty helping of food, fun and heritage during the largest multi-day festival in Bartholomew County.
Among the first visitors to arrive at the festival grounds Saturday were runners from middle school cross country teams who filed through Jackson Street to compete in 34th Annual Heritage Classic Cross County Meet .
Elsewhere, contestants in the inaugural baking contest crossed in-between runners to deliver their prized pies, cakes and desserts for judging at the Willow Leaves of Hope restaurant.
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Among the bakers was Lisa Webster of Hope, who stayed up late Friday night making a carrot cake that judges ultimately named Best of Show.
Food, as visitors discovered, was everywhere.
Runners couldn’t miss the aroma of freshly prepared glazed donuts at the nearby Swiss Maid Country Market as they crossed the finish line, where long, never-ending lines of customers waiting for a taste.
“I saw those donuts when I passed by the first time and that was all I could think about,” said sixth grade runner Michael Brooks, a member of the Immanuel Lutheran School Cross Country Team from Seymour who came home with a fourth-place finish.
“This is my second time to compete in this meet. I really like coming here,” said Brooks as he moved to join the long line of people waiting for donuts.
With temperatures in the 70s instead of 20 degrees warmer as it was last year, Heritage of Hope chief executive officer Michael Dean said he expected the festival’s three-day attendance to top last year’s estimated 30,000.
“You can tell a lot by watching the line of people waiting for donuts. That line stretched into the street from the first hour the Swiss Miss opened and it has never gotten any shorter. People just keep coming,” Dean said.
While customers waited in lines out front, Swiss Maid owner Leroy Amstutz was busy cutting donuts in the back kitchen of his store.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, Amstutz said his crew had made and sold 4,900 donuts.
“If it continues at the current rate, by the end of the day we will have made over 8,400 donuts in one day,” Amstutz said.
While customer traffic was brisk at Swiss Maid, a shop across from the Hope Town Square, similar long lines could be found in front of 17 food vendors sprinkled around the festival grounds.
Volunteers with not-for-profit social organizations, churches and schools whipped up food products such as baked potatoes, fish sandwiches, pizza, pulled pork, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken noodles and desserts. Proceeds often fund an organization’s activities for a full year.
Eighty-five non-food vendors sold a wide diverse array of products, but Heritage Days is not just about selling things.
“This is about the community coming together to invest in the future while we are also honoring our past,” Hope Town Manager J.T. Doane said.
Jeff Lee and Donna Riddle of Jonesville had not been to Hope Heritage Days since the 1990s.
“I just can’t believe how big it has gotten,” Riddle said.
“We are about making memories here and we are about coming together to educate and learn in a fun environment,” volunteer Brian Bower said.
The petting zoo, for example, caught the attention of children — and their parents — hoping to interact with ponies, goats and chickens.
Jacob Monroe and Matt John, chairman of the Agriculture Department at Ivy Tech Columbus and a leader of the Feathered Friends 4-H Poultry Club, staked out a spot near rows of caged live poultry.
“We wait here for the kids to come through and then we explain things to them,” said Monroe, an eight-year 4-H member with the Feathered Friends club.
“This is about about having fun and learning about the animals. For some people, it is their first close-up experience with the animals,” John said. “And for the Feathered Friends members, it’s about learning to share their knowledge with others.”
Kathy Hershey of Utopia Wildlife Rehabilitators shared her experience with wild life that her organization has saved from injuries and traumas.
Elsewhere, artists in many mediums demonstrated how to spin thread from flax or create ceramics, for example.
Life-long Hope resident Chuck Baker demonstrated the process of creating a flint lock rifle in his booth. He also shared a vast knowledge of Hope’s earliest history through the telling of his own family history, which reaches back to the founding of Hope.
For 9-year-old Landon Gilbert, visiting Hope Heritage Days was a chance to step back into a place he once called home.
“We moved to Scipio when I was about 5,” the boy said. “I miss it here and I like it when we come back for this. I like the parade and the music the best.”
The afternoon parade is Sunday’s big attraction each year, with viewers lined up for the best seating along miles of Hope roads, catching the vintage cars, other floats and marching band music. This year — when Hope native Bud Herron was recognized as grand marshal for a lifetime of community contributions — was no different.
Music is a key to bringing 30,000 people together into a town of 2,100 residents, Dean said.
“We have everything from gospel to pop to classic rock and country. Last night (Friday) I counted over 450 people at the Gospel Sing. Every venue has been full,” Dean said. “That helps set the tone for everything.”
Town Manager Doane has been on the job for two years, making him a relative newcomer compared to many of the Heritage of Hope helpers who have donated most of their lives to the event. He sees what it all means with fresh eyes.
“It is one of the best things I’ve ever been involved in. It is just amazing how people come together to make this happen,” Doane said. “It reminds me of a saying I saw once. It said the definition of the word hope is to see the invisible, to feel the intangible and to achieve the impossible.”
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The inaugural Hope Heritage Days baking contest drew 34 entries in three categories, with prizes provided by Tonala Mexican Restaurant, Swiss Maid Grocery and Pampered Chef consultant Lisa Bailey.
Best of Show: Lisa Webster, carrot cake, who earned a prize package worth more than $200.
Cakes: Vicki Tedder, first; Tracy Warriner, second; Heather Barnett, third.
Pies: Teresa Covert, first; Laura Miller, second; Dakota Dickey, third.
Miscellaneous (cookies, desserts): Lisa Bailey, first; Gail Wilson, second; Christy Shipe, third.
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