Quakertown is alive with excitement this fall, as preparations are underway for the annual Autumn Alive! celebration.
Autumn Alive! 2010 will take place on Saturday, October 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. right in downtown Quakertown , PA.
“This is our 11th year for the Autumn Alive!, which is a harvest festival,” said Naomi Naylor, Quakertown Alive!’s Main Street Manager.
“We’re going to have a Pet Parade on Broad Street,” said Naylor. “This is our second year for this. It went over so well last year that we decided to have it again.” There are four contest categories for the Pet Parade this year: Best Halloween Costume; Best Pet and Owner Look-Alike; Best Pet/Companion Team Costume; and Ugliest Pet. “It’s all a lot of fun, and although the judges sometimes react to having to judge the last category, the owners don’t really get upset, and everyone has a lot of fun with it, so we’re looking forward to that again.”
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| Poster for This Year's Autumn Alive! |
“We’re becoming more of a pet-friendly town,” said Naylor.
Those wishing to enter the Broad Street Pet Parade can register at the Pet Parade Registration Booth up until 12:45 p.m. on the day of the event. The registration fee to compete in each category is $10.00 per entry. The Parade will begin at 1:00 p.m., but all pets should be checked in between noon and 12:45 p.m. For more information, check the Website or call (215) 536-2273.
New this year will be the Talent Showcase contest. The contest is open to all ages, and participants should prepare a 5- to 10-minute performance. Those interested can register by filling out an application, where they will be asked to describe their family-friendly talent, and by submitting an entry fee of $10.00. If selected to perform, participants should be prepared with all their needed equipment. A microphone will be provided. For questions, call (215) 536-2273 or e-mail info@quakertownalive.com. The application form is available to be downloaded on the Website at www.quakertownalive.com.
“This is our first time doing this,” said Naylor. “We’re excited! The committee wanted to do this, and the top prize will be 4 hours of free [studio] recording time.” Sonlight Productions (2067 Milford Square Pike-Quakertown) is sponsoring the contest, and there will also be other smaller prizes. Contestants should bring a Blank, Recordable CD to the Showcase to receive a FREE LIVE Recording of their performance, courtesy of Sonlight Productions (http://www.sonlightproductions.net/).
“We’re having a great scarecrow contest, and so far, the businesses have really hopped on with it,” said Naylor. The merchants have been asked to create themed scarecrows, according to their kinds of businesses, and all of them, and even many of the non-profit organizations, are getting involved. “Some businesses already have their scarecrows out on the street.”
A team of judges is used to determine all the winners.
Tonya Rupell, the owner of Stone Soup Designs, is a vendor who is looking forward to the event.
“I wire-wrap gemstones into pendants,” said Rupell, who has been involved with the spring, juried Arts Alive! program, also sponsored by Quakertown Alive!, for a number of years. She will be joining the Autumn Alive! celebration for the first time this year. “[Being involved in the Arts Alive! events] has really helped give me a great jump start with my business,” said Rupell, who also offers affordable classes to teach people how to wire-wrap the gemstones and whose daughter has joined Rupell wrapping the gems—making it a family thing. “It’s just great to be a part of it!”
“We keep our pendant prices down—to $6 and $8 each, or to 2 for $10,” said Rupell. “We like to share our art work—and I do consider them pieces of art—and we like to see people wear our creations. We’ve made about 5,000 pieces in the past 2 years, and we do them all by hand. We also demonstrate all day long, as we sell. We’ll have some extra things added for the upcoming Christmas holidays.”
“There will be community and animal rescue groups, vendors and crafters on the street, live entertainment—such as different demonstrations by local dance schools and karate clubs, markets up at the train station, . . . and even the United Friends, up at the other end of the block, will participate,” said Naylor. “We work in conjunction with them because we want them to do well, too. [The Friends will] have a bus to transport people back and forth from their area.”
“People really like [the festival] because it has a family focus; it’s good for the community; and it focuses on children’s activities—such as rides,” said Naylor. The rides include a train going around the town and a moon bounce, and there will be a big red wagon with the large Clydesdale horses at the event. (There will be a nominal charge for the carriage rides and the children’s rides.) Magicians, stilt walkers, and balloon sculptures will also be present.
“All the restaurants in town will be open and will have their own specials,” said Naylor. There will also be a Food Court, located right in the Triangle Square area. And the downtown stores will have all kinds of special sales.
“But we’re having a Grower’s Market, too,” said Naylor. “People can come out and get their farm-fresh fruits and vegetables.”
“There’s plenty of parking by the Borough [Hall], across from Broad Street, on 5th Street, and by the Trolley Barn near the Train Station. There will be signs posted around indicating where to park,” said Naylor. “We’ve never really had a problem with parking.”
“Red Ace”, a fluid band made up of young representative musicians from the Upper Bucks Alliance for Creative Expression (UBACE), will be featured as part of the live entertainment at the event. This 4-member band, comprised of a lead singer, guitarist, drummer, and bass guitarist, will perform for an hour or so, focusing on classical rock and on some rock-and-roll music of the 1950s. Additional musicians will join them for individual numbers.
“UBACE is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that works with middle and high school musicians to teach them how to form a band, what it’s all about, and how much work is involved in putting on a show,” said Samantha Beattie, a member of the UBACE Marketing and Events Committee.
“UBACE is a good opportunity for young people to meet other, like-minded kids,” said Beattie. Together, with the help of several adults, these young, usually numbering between 30 and 40, musicians rehearse each spring and fall for about 3 months—in preparation for each of their 2 big yearly concerts. Professional musicians normally get involved anchoring as well.
UBACE focuses on providing these basically non-competitive young musicians with a safe mentoring place to practice and creatively express themselves. Through their experiences at UBACE, the young people gain musical experience and learn collaboration and responsibility, how to resolve conflicts, and how to apply themselves to get something positive accomplished.
“It’s like a family here,” said one student at UBACE, who stressed that one easily feels accepted there, in a place where everything is based on music. “The music brings us together.”
This year, UBACE’s fall concert, Rock and Roll - The Early Years, will be held on Friday night, November 12, at 8:00 p.m. at the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University , located at 420 East Packard Avenue, in Bethlehem , PA.
Officer Bryan Lockwood from the Quakertown Police Department will be on hand to demonstrate how the K-9 dogs help keep the community safe. Officer Lockwood, who has been with the Quakertown Police for 6 years and working with the K-9 program for the past 2, will bring his dog, “Kito”, a narcotics-detecting dog, to show how Kito works, when necessary, to find hidden narcotics in an area.
“The dogs are trained in North Carolina with their ‘handlers’ in an initial course, and then there’s regular follow-up training twice a month—on Patrol Day and Scent Day,” said Officer Matthew Molchan, whose dog, “Jynx”, is the town’s explosives-detection dog. The dogs work as part of a team with their individual handlers, the particular officers they patrol with on a regular basis, and even go home with their handlers. “They’re ‘take home dogs’—one dog to one handler.”
“The dogs do dual-purpose work,” said Officer Molchan. “They do trailing, tracking, and narcotics or explosives detection.” While not patrolling or specifically doing detection work, the dogs assist in missing child cases, in missing vehicle cases, and in building searches. “Their keen sense-of-smell allows them to know if someone is still in the building, hiding—even when we [, as humans,] may not be sure.”
“The dogs are great!” said Officer Molchan. “They’re social dogs. However, when they’re on patrol and alone in the patrol car, people usually can’t approach them too easily, but when they’re with their handlers, they’re fine. They’re working dogs. It’s what they do, and they like it.”
Quakertown Alive!, the volunteer-driven non-profit community development organization that sponsors Autumn Alive!, exists to provide leadership and resources to help downtown Quakertown be further developed and revitalized in such a way that the quality of life for all who live in the area continues to improve. The organization was formed by the local Chamber of Commerce in 1998.
Today, Quakertown serves as the cultural, economic, and social center of Upper Bucks County France ’s Napoleon Bonaparte and, therefore, more than doubled the size of the United States
“Autumn Alive! is a nice day out,” said Beattie. “And it grows and grows each year, too.”
Come join the (other) Quakertown residents and the working business community as they celebrate the fall harvest season this weekend. It is sure to be a fun-filled, family event.
* Photo of Poster Courtesy of Quakertown Alive!
* Photo of Poster Courtesy of Quakertown Alive!
© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier. All rights reserved.
