This isn’t Ed Cobb’s first Newark Strawberry Festival. Or his second, third or fourth. Cobb, 95, has been a member of Kiwanis since 1975.
“Good lord, that’s 45 or 55 years,” Cobb said.
The annual Newark Strawberry Festival, organized by Kiwanis Club of Newark, ran from May 30 to June 1 in downtown Newark. The festival included food trucks, craft vendors, games, rides, live music, a strawberry shortcake eating contest and a fireworks display. Cobb’s favorite part of the festival is the Strawberry shortcake. Luckily, he does not have to worry about missing out.
Kiwanis prepared 4,000 strawberry shortcakes for this year’s Strawberry Festival according to the Kiwanis Strawberry Festival Chair Janet Bickel.
The strawberry shortcake comes with pound cake, a scoop of ice cream, a spoonful of strawberries and whipped cream on top.
Kiwanis Club of Newark, an organization dedicated to helping children, uses the Strawberry Festival as an opportunity to fundraise for Camp O’Bannon on Butler Road in Newark. Children are referred to the camp through social services or elementary schools, and it is free for families.
“There’s about 400 a year that go through there, it’s a great program,” Cobb said.
The Kiwanis Aktion Club also raised money for Camp O’Bannon through strawberry and cookie sales. President Carl Gruber and Director Amy Gruber help lead the service and leadership based organization for adults with developmental disabilities.
But the 4,000 short cakes and Aktion Club strawberries were far from the only food at this year’s strawberry festival.
Newark-based small business owner Brittani Kaplinsky brought her charcuterie creations to this year’s Strawberry festival. With her business Triple Bliss, she brings charcuterie and other treats to weddings, luncheons and festivals.
Kaplinsky took on the Strawberry Festival with her Dubai Chocolate Strawberry creation, a fitting variation of the TikTok famous Dubai Chocolate trend.
Favored Flavors brought faith and a taste of Chicago to this year’s festival. When asked what Favored Flavors is, founder Ethel Louise Noble called the food truck a gift from God.
“I didn’t ask for none of this, this has all been a blessing and a gift, and I felt favored,” Noble said.
Years ago, she worked at a hoagie shop back home in Chicago. Noble decided to start replicating the sandwiches she used to make back home in Ohio, and worked overtime to save up the money to buy her truck. She sells hoagies, saucy steak sandwiches and Mexican street corn.
The last Ohio State University player to sack University of Michigan’s Tom Brady in the Big House, twice, made a special appearance at the Festival. James Cotton, a former OSU and NFL player, visited the Strawberry festival with Safety Brenten Jones and Cornerback Dianté Griffin.
Cotton, Jones and Griffin signed a variety of Ohio State merchandise to raise money for the Buck-Icon football fun camp, a camp on July 12 for kids to learn about football from the current national champions.
“When we come to the festival, we ask for donations, and people start getting autographs, and that’s how we fund our free camp,” Cotton said.
Even some of the numerous games and rides on North 1st Street the festival matched with the strawberry theme.
Maddie Luebkert writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.