By Lindsey Baxter | [email protected]

The annual Harvest Festival benefiting the Wasatch Charter School was held on Saturday, Oct. 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with free admission for all. The event is usually held on the first or second Saturday in October and has been going on for four years. The event was filled with fun fall activities, creative crafts, holiday shopping and gift wrapping, delicious autumn food and a bake sale.

Megan Zurkan, parent at the school who is also the fundraising chair, was in charge of the event. She said the Wasatch Family Foundation is a private 501c3 set up to support Wasatch Charter School, which is also a 501c3. “It’s really just a great opportunity to bring our community within the school as well as our community at large together to celebrate to the seasonal change of the harvest,” she said.

“Most of the vendors pay to be at the event like a farmers market. All the school-sponsored elements, like our gift wrapping, our ticket sales, our activities for the children, our bake sale, our food service here for lunch, those are all donations here for the school. Most of the activities are for the wristbands for the children. The activities like jump rope making, silk dying, and bake sale ranges from $1–15,” Zurkan said.

Kelly Rollins of Kelly Joy Crochet had her first booth at this year’s Harvest Festival. “I love getting out and meeting customers and meeting new families and sharing my stuff,” she said. “Because most of the time I sell online so this is kind of my first outing with all of my crocheting gifts and it’s been really fun to see people’s reaction to my stuff.” She said a kindergarten teacher came in and bought all of the animals she had and then walked around the festival telling everyone about them. 

Another first-time vendor to the festival, Maureen with Two Larks, was invited by her neighbor to come to the event. “It is a really lovely community — there are some real beautiful people here. You can just tell that there is a fun energy here,” she said.

The weather was a perfect fall day for the festival with crowds of people continuing to show up to the event. The fair was filled with entertainment, food, music, treats, games, face painting and crafts for the children. There was an area for kids to play games, get their face painted, make their own jump ropes and do silk dying. There was a lunch option and bake sale going on inside the school. Different groups of children went on stage to sing and perform for the audience. The event even had a family making fresh apple juice, which seemed to be a huge hit with constant lines.  

“We will continue to do this event and do two main events every year for fundraising. We also have our third Spring Gala on April 26, 2019. That is a community event as well, but it’s for 21 and older. It’s where we have a silent auction, we have a dinner that will be provided by Cannella’s restaurant downtown. We have a live auction. It’s a great night,” Zurkan said.