Event Coordinators Tracy Murphy and Nicole Roberts take a hard earned and well deserved moment to "Clown around"
Photo by Keith Kent
Fall Festival participants enjoy a ride up and down Central Street on a trackless train taking in the event scenery.
Photo by Keith Kent
Winchendon Celebrates Highly Successful 2021 Fall Festival
Winchendon residents and many more from other communities joined together celebrating a highly successful 2021 Fall Festival, with an estimated 2,000 or more attending the six hour event, enjoying time with friends and family and filling up the grounds of Central Street in a way not seen since the last event in October, 2019.
Gathering for the first time in two years due to the pandemic shutdown through 2020, many participants starting setting up at 7:00 a.m. or earlier, with vendor popup tents, food tents and trucks, and much more quickly filling the downtown Central Street business district at a feverish pace. At the beginning of the event's opening, several hundred attendees could already be seen walking the closed street, a strong sign of what was soon to come.
The event, which ran during the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., hosted nearly 190 individual vendors, area businesses, food trucks, charitable organization, multiple live music locations, Shriner's Clowns making balloon animals for children, raffles, toys, and much more. From sports memorabilia to hand-made jewelry, from painted rocks to Halloween socks, from jars of honey to a chance to win scratch tickets worth lots of money, there was something for people of all ages both young and old alike. Even little children got to ride a trackless train while still too small for their own first trike.
If you were looking for something to eat either during or after all the walking around, no less than 19 area businesses and vendors combined to serve any hunger needs. Police K-9 command and action demonstrations took place between the hours of 12:00 and 1:00 p.m., with the Winchendon Fire Department providing cooking safety demonstrations of how quickly turkey frying can go critically wrong under incorrect conditions, with potentially deadly explosive fire and splatter. If your ears were looking for a treat, live music was played at the UU Church, the Clark YMCA and Bull Spit Brewery's Bull Yard, all along Central Street. Many charitable organizations also got in on the action, ranging from the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts, to the Winchendon History and Cultural Center, Senior Center, and multiple others.
The WFD provides a demonstration of how quickly under the wrong conditions a turkey frying can go catastrophically wrong, causing either serious injury, death, and/or structure fires.
Photo by Keith Kent
WPD K-9 Officer Wironen demonstrates Officer Clyde's ability to take commands and focus on his target.
Photo by Keith Kent
DPW Superintendent and volunteer Brian Croteau finds himself on the receiving end of an "Air Clyde" attack as he comes in for his landing latching on to his directed target!
Photo by Keith Kent
Roberts went on to say thanks with, "We couldn't have done it without both the town's support and everybody behind the scenes. Making sure we had enough power. The DPW and Police making sure the roads were safe and closed, and the Fire Department for all they do along with their live fire demonstrations. Then there were people like John Goan making sure the utility polls were all turned on for power, Salvador's for donating the use of their golf carts, and Andy Brooks at Brooks Automotive for picking them up and transporting them back, and so many others as these are just a few examples of who just helped make it work behinds the scene, we couldn't do it without everybody. We also got help from the Murdock High School Football Team who helped set up all the tables and chairs at the YMCA parking lot and for vendors. Michelle Comeau from To Each His Own Design placed all the bows on the utility poles. Tina Santos helped attaching the corn stalks to all the utility poles, and Jared Scortico donated all the corn stalks for the poles. As Fall Fest moves on, more and more we become like that well oiled machine, and everybody just loves to help make it work."
In closing Roberts wanted everybody to know, "The event is really an all year long effort. The map goes up on the wall early on, and we already have everything reserved for next year with the bounce house, tables, chairs, portable potties, and mostly everything else already reserved. We are really looking forward to the event growing more and more, and we are looking forward to next year as this is a wonderful community event!"
Director of Planning and Development Tracy Murphy was also very pleased with how the event unfolded. Murphy said, "The event overall was very successful. It was certainly well attended, as people it seems are really ready to be out and about. We appreciate the Board Of Health being there to hand out masks and hand sanitizer as well as all the vendors having sanitizer per the BOH request. We got supportive kind words from members of the BOS and other boards as well. I want to thank Nicole Roberts for all her work on this, because you just can't keep track of all the hours involved in this event. We start working on the next event as soon as or even before the current one is over, as we work on it all year long."
Murphy also added, "We have a good system. Nicole is our one point of contact to reduce any confusion, and I go over all the sites, measurements, and more double- and triple-checking them. Nicole and I walked up and down the street multiple times, talking with the vendors, as you need to have that organization and communication. This was such a great event for the town. Then you had all those people and their musical groups pitching in donating their time with free performances. The Big Ran-Dom, Winchendon Winds, Ron Morey, and Kaydon Gordon as the event DJ. They all performed for free to pitch in and help out making the event even greater, so as this event doesn't have a budget, we couldn't have had them play without all of them donating their time."
Members of the Big Ran-Dom perform for Fall Festival participants at the upper Clark YMCA parking lot to the crowd's enjoyment.
Photo by Keith Kent
Town Resident Ken Labrack smiles in thanks as both the performing band at the Bull Spit Bull Pin and the crowd jointly sang him "Happy Birthday" at the 2021 Fall Fest which also fell on Labrack's 74 Birthday.
Photo by Keith Kent
Town Manager Justin Sultzbach experienced his first Winchendon Fall Festival with his family. Sultzbach was pleased to say, "First and foremost I want to thank my staff for coordinating all their efforts to make this event happen. It was an excellent way to showcase what downtown Winchendon has to offer. I think it was also a great opportunity for the citizens of Winchendon to see some of the positive changes we are looking to implement downtown. This was such a family friendly event, and I am very grateful we found a way to host it especially in the times we are living in, and to be able to hold the event safely and still provide the residents of Winchendon a way to show their town off and be proud of their community."
Seen here at the Winchendon Fall Festival, just some of the several thousand spectators are making their rounds.
Photo by Keith Kent
Contestants go full on "In your face" with the 2021 Fall Festival pie eating contest
Photo by Tina Santos
Winchendon COVID Viral Rate a Parallel, Masks Mandated in All Town Owned Buildings
As the Town of Winchendon and its surrounding communities continue to be identified as a Commonwealth viral cluster, the majority of surrounding municipalities per the latest Mass Department of Public Health update as of Thursday, October 14, show no improvement with some showing only the slightest decrease, and the majority showing a gradual increase.
Winchendon, a town of 10,765 per the Mass DPH, completed a virtual 7 day parallel report, last registering a viral positivity rate on October 7, of 5.64 percent, was designated per the latest update on October 14, of 5.54 percent based on just under 1,000 molecular tests. Additionally beginning Tuesday, October 12, the Town Manager, Justin Sultzbach, per a BOH Chair recommendation based on consistently reported DPH data, mandated masks in all town owned buildings regardless of vaccination status. All entering the building must wear a mask. If the Town of Winchendon can realize 2 consecutive weeks of a viral infection rate of 4.49 percent or less, masks at that time will be allowed to come off during entry. If Winchendon as a town realizes 2 consecutive weeks of 4.50 percent viral positivity or greater, the masks must go back on to obtain entry. Town municipal employees per previous Governor and DPH temporary regulation observance, are allowed to work at their desks or stations without a mask on as long as 6 feet of social distancing can be maintained, however if needing close interaction with the public requesting assistance, the municipal employee inside the town owned building must put their mask back on until 6 feet of bodily separation can again be maintained.
To Winchendon's west, the Town of Royalston after previous recent weeks in the high percentile, experienced a significant drop, dropping from 3.17 to just 0.73 percent in the last week. Its member school district partner, Town of Athol, the largest town in north Worcester County, while still higher, dropped from 8.39 percent to 6.60 percent based on 1,410 tests.
To our south, member towns of the Narragansett Regional School District have again realized viral increases, with Templeton increasing slightly from 6.31 to 6.41 percent, and fellow member Phillipston seeing a massive surge in its infection rate, spiking from 4.32 all the way up to 11.20 percent based on 161 molecular tests, a very concerning number.
To our east, member communities of the Oakmont Regional School District, realized both a slight increase and decrease simultaneously, with Ashburnham increasing from 3.03 to 3.42, and Westminster slightly decreasing from 5.62 to 5.33, like all in our area, still high above the state infection average.
The City of Gardner also to our immediate south, also increased slightly from 5.20 to 5.44 percent viral positivity based on 2,598 molecular tests. Adding to regional cluster concern, to Gardner's immediate south, the Town of Barre realizes a 6.75 percent infection rate based on 563 tests, and Hubbardston has increased to 6.33 percent based on 458 tests, both members of the Quabbin Regional School District.
As COVID-19 and its Delta variant thrive on population density, Massachusetts largest cities which mostly have higher vaccination rates continue to be much safer in the infection rate category than Winchendon. The City of Worcester with over 180,000 residents, registers at just 1.09 percent. Springfield, the commonwealth's second largest city, registered at 3.75 percent, and Boston, the largest city in Massachusetts, registers just 0.80 percent positivity and over 6 times less than Winchendon, despite having some 1.5 million residents and 69 times Winchendon's population density per square mile.
In closing, the numbers tell the story. With upcoming larger indoor gatherings, such as Halloween parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, and then New Year's Eve parties less than 3 months away, numbers in our region will be hard pressed to see a significant decrease at our current vaccination rate which at this time the Mass DPH still registers at just 48 percent of our town population. Winchendon was also not long ago reported on various websites as one of the worst vaccination averages per municipality in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Chair of the Board of Health, and not speaking for my entire board, if you have not already received a vaccination, please strongly consider doing so if you are healthy to receive such. Please speak with your physician, and do not listen to the multitude of false information on social media platforms. Also again, masks regardless of vaccination status, are now mandatory in all town owned buildings, which could have been averted if our vaccination averages were higher. Please remember to wear a mask when entering town owned public buildings.
Keith Kent
Chair
Board of Health
Town of Winchendon
To schedule a free COVID-19 vaccination at any time, go to www.mass.gov/covid-19-vaccine.
