Last night, I met a stranger in a nearby parking lot and we exchanged papers. The person then gave me a wad of cash and we drove off. Was it a drug deal? No. It was a last-minute crafter registration for Yardley Harvest Day.
A crafter, of course, makes items by hand – knitting, painting, woodworking, and the like. As co-chair of the Yardley Harvest Day Committee, I craft the assembly of hundreds of vendors – artists, musicians, volunteers, food trucks, civic groups, local businesses, historical tours and sponsors – into the streets and fields, nooks and crannies of our town, for this much-anticipated fall event.
September 18 will mark the 53rd annual community gathering that typically draws between 10,000 to 15,000 in foot traffic to the streets of scenic Yardley Borough.
Last year the pandemic forced us to cancel Harvest Day for the first time ever. Reconciling the deposits, carry-overs, and refunds for the 2020 non-event required as almost as much work as planning for Harvest Day in a normal year.
Challenges for 2021
Every year presents unique challenges. This year, we had two big headaches: Fitzgerald Field was flooded by Tropical Storm Ida two weeks before Harvest Day and a new printed calendar sponsorship idea had to be abandoned mid-stream, meaning a loss of revenue.
Luckily, the large lake on the field dried up a few days after the river receded. And we were able to sell a new children’s entertainment sponsorship to replace the lost revenue from the calendar offering.
I and my colleagues on the Harvest Day committee are insanely busy from late August to early September as we try to keep up with the dizzying logistics and late registrations. This year, I have been struggling to place everything including new attractions such as a children’s entertainment area, a bookmobile, and a blacksmith.
The biggest reason I stay involved year after year is the appreciation we get from community groups, some of which have said the Harvest Day contribution is key to their budgets. Yardley Harvest Day is a non-profit corporation that distributes its earnings to community and charity organizations. In 2018 we were able to meet the recipient of a named Harvest Day scholarship awarded by the Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation.
Throwbacks & evolution
My first job with Harvest Day was manning the main entrance in the early morning at the intersection of E. College Avenue and River Road. That was in 2013, a few months after an internal civil war split the event’s past co-managers. One contingent took over sole management and had to start over with planning and marketing the event. I simply wanted to help get the festival back on track. My participation increased each year. In recent years, I led an effort to make investments and knock out some annual expenses by acquiring items such as walkie talkies, generic signs, and a generator. I had plans to revamp the sponsorship structure and expand entertainment in 2020.
Looking back to the early 1970s, Harvest Day included all kids of contests - pie-eating, bike decorating, fishing, knitting, clothesline pinning, and the coveted title of Miss Harvest Day Queen. Businesses set up special booths in the street. By the 1980s, vendors lined both sides of Canal Street, and crowds had grown to 10,000 visitors.
Back then the local chapter of the Jaycees assumed responsibility for planning Harvest Day, but in 1995, the Jaycees lost their charter due to declining membership. The Makefield Women’s Association and the Yardley Business Association agreed to take over the planning of Harvest Day. Today the event is organized by the Harvest Day Committee and the YBA.
Harvest Day requires a small army of volunteers who work all year to make the event happen every third Saturday in September. Rich Cole and I are the co-chairs of the Committee, which consists of about a dozen very dedicated, active members. We have recruited 56 students from the Pennsbury School District to work seven different shifts on the actual day this year. At least another dozen adults are assigned to specific tasks at open and close.
Who benefits from Harvest Day?
The event has generated between $13,000 and $16,000 in net earnings in recent years. Recipients of Harvest Day earnings include the Friends of Lake Afton, Experience Yardley, the Yardley-Makefield Emergency Unit, the Yardley Historical Association, the Yardley Farmers Market, the Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation, the Yardley Business Association, and the Friends of the Mary Yardley Footbridge.
The costs and expenses vary greatly each year. For example, this year we had a drop in sponsor revenue, an increase in food truck income and rising expenses for fixed items such as the website, signage, the stage, liability insurance, and even the portable toilets.
We had to sell at least eight of the 12 calendar sponsorships by mid-July to break even on the high-cost, high-return effort. It was a bit too ambitious, but I am relieved that we were able to cancel the project without generating losses. In particular, Marketa Kruse, our awesome marketing person, came through and converted the calendar sponsors.
2021 dedication
We are dedicating this year’s event to two veterans - Margaret and Craig Bork. Craig and Margaret trained many of us on best practices for planning and staging the fair. Just yesterday, I was looking at planning sketches Craig drew a few years ago to help me generate ideas for packing the wave of food trucks and vendors assigned to Fitzgerald Field.
Craig, the longtime maestro of logistics and space planning for Harvest Day, passed away in October. Margaret, a former YBA President and past committee chair, will step down from the Harvest Day Committee after this year. I will miss tapping their institutional knowledge.
Final words & thanks
Did I mention Yardley Harvest Day is free and open to the public? Hope to see you on Saturday.
Thank you all:
The Borks
The Coles
Marketa Kruse
Lisa Kruse
Heather DiPrato
Maureen McGovern
Ryan Berry
Tom Wells
David Appelbaum
Tracey Walker
Tammy Marshall
Bryon Marshall
Yardley Borough staff
Cooperating Property Owners
Pennsbury School District
Yardley Historical Association
Rich Wayne served as a Yardley Borough Council Member for 12 years and is a data analyst.
Yardley Harvest Day website: https://yardleyharvestday.com/
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