Family-run fall festival lives on in Battersea, Ont.

For nearly 25 years, thousands of locals have come together in an open field in Battersea, Ont., to celebrate the fall season.

The Battersea Pumpkin Festival has humble beginnings. It started as a backyard event for Sharon Freeman and her family but quickly grew into an attraction in town.

“My husband and I wanted to bring family and friends together and we would have sack races and an assortment of food. We never thought it would turn into an annual event for people from around the area,” said Freeman.

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Recently, Freeman passed the torch to her sister in-law, Heather Freeman, and a group of organizers to continue the event, which she says they’ve taken to another level.

Heather is the Pumpkin Festival’s parade marshal and helps run the cookie decoration booth. The booth offers free cookies to all of the children attending the festival, which has Heather and her team working around the clock for two days before the event.

“We bake around 1,400 cookies,” said Heather.

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Children are given a plain cookie that they can top with orange icing, which is made on location by the volunteers. And no cookie is complete without maple leaf-shaped sprinkles, Heather added.

The Battersea Pumpkin Festival kicked off with a pancake breakfast at 7 a.m., followed by a parade at 10 a.m and then an entire afternoon filled with wagons rides, storytelling, a petting zoo, a clown performance, a pie-eating contest and several other fall-themed events.