Conway residents, if you’d like to be involved please join us!  Also bring a friend, the more ideas, the merrier…

Bonnie Decker of New York surveys the challenge before taking the women's log splitting title the second year in a rowSkillet Toss:

Hurray for all of those who tossed a skillet or split a log on festival day.  These are the folks to beat next year:

Skillet toss

Men
1st – Jerry LeBlanc 61′ 5″
2nd – John Perreault 61′ 1″
3rd – Jeff Culver 60′ 11″

Women
1st – Karen Sacco 38′ 9″
2nd – Karlie Sacco 37′ 3″
3rd – Elaine Campbell 36′ 8″

Wood splitting

Men
1st – Jeff Culver – 272 lbs
2nd – Tim Loncar – 238 lbs
3rd – Brad Belville – 140 lbs

Women
1st – Bonnie Decker – 138 lbs
2nd – Cara Kenny – 73 lbs
3rd – Michelle Harris – 36.5 lbs 

(If you miss it, more baked goods will be for sale the day of the Festival.)

Many of the same great prizes are back this year, including a signed Holly Hobbie book, and a Raku vessel made by Bob Green. Always favorites, you’ll find Correll Art Glass and lovely Megan Hart pottery. Other great prizes include a woven runner, crafted by Ute Bargmann, a Cricket Hill Jams Gift Box, donated by Peter Freisem, a photograph by Geoffrey Bluh, and a ceramic piece by Carolyn Thayer. In addition, there will be useful gardening tools from OESCO, our ever popular forged bottle opener from Bob Compton, and Howard and Jeanne Boyden’s delicious maple syrup. Who couldn’t use 2 hours of house cleaning from L.G. Cleaning? They’ll be CDs from our very own Andy Jaffe and Janet Ryan. Need a little TLC? How about bodywork gift certificates from Debra Hoyle, Pam McCormack and Deborah Donaldson, or ‘The Answer’ body massage tool donated by Walter Goodridge. CISA will offer a bag full of ‘local hero’ products and membership, and Greenfield Savings Bank is donating a barbecue set. We’ll have a silk-screened T-shirt from Dorothy Osterman, and a gift certificate for a Lube, Oil, and Filter from Sunset.

That’s a lot of great items and services that could be yours. So, support the Festival Scholarship Fund, enjoy the anticipation of winning, and buy lots of tickets … still $1 each or 6 for $5. Look for our streamlined orange tickets. Tickets are available at Baker’s, Greenfield Savings Bank, The Conway Inn, Sunset Garage, and Pekarskis … as well as from Festival committee members.

The 48th annual Festival of the Hills showcased some of our finest small town treasures.  From near and far, people arrived to enjoy the day with family and friends at our annual gathering.  This year, we introduced with great acclaim many new children’s games.  Kids threw soft stuffed frogs on the lily pad and pennies in pickle jars.  Faces and pumpkins were painted, children jumped around in the bounce house, and some scaled the climbing mountain.  Older kids popped balloons on a dart board, and there was a steady line up to see just how fast a pitch they could throw.  And as if that wasn’t enough, we had a full petting zoo, pony rides, Tom Ricardi’s birds, homing pigeons, and more.  We also had the formal dedication of the new playground which was used all day long.  It was delightful.

The music was as unique as it was diverse so that everyone’s taste in music was touched.  Kids and adults beat to the rhythms of Tony Vacca while they swooned and danced to the swing music provided by Unit7.  An open mic session provided an opportunity for Conway youths to perform before a big crowd, and they were really terrific.  Katryna Nields entertained us with a couple of Beatle songs chosen by her kids in harmony with her sister Nerissa and later with Janet Ryan, whose band Straight Up rounded out the music.

The 10K road race participation was up over last year, and no wonder!  It was a great day to run!  Winning in the mens division was Drew Best (0:35:01) while Katherine Best (0:46:25) took the honors in the womans division.  Winners of the 1.2 mile kids’ race were Andy Habel for the boys and Ciara Hudson for the girls.  The Log Splitting Contest drew a heck of a crowd while they lined up to take a chance of winning the top honor of splitting Ron Boyden’s wood in 2 minutes of a certain size that is then weighed.  A little while later, the skillet toss area was mobbed with hundreds of onlookers while dozens of people took their chance tossing the skillet.  In the end, the top honors went to Joe Swartz of Amherst and Karen Saco of South Deerfield.

The long, white majestic tent in the center of the field was home to a diversified group of crafters.  From cutting boards and walking sticks to jewelry, soap and mittens, it was an incredible opportunity to shop for unique gifts.  That place was packed all day long, except, of course, when your stomach started growling after catching a drifting breeze of barbecue, burgers, lo-mein and traditional Tibetan mo-mos.  It was hard not to buy it all!  Delicious, a great variety and even pies for dessert!

Certainly you noticed the recycling efforts throughout the events all made possible by a number of dedicated volunteers.  This year we delivered 12 bags of compostables to Bill Obear’s farm, had 5 bags of recyclable containers and 4 bags of returnable cans/bottles.  That left 18 bags of trash, down from 24 last year!  We also allowed people to make a choice of purchasing available bottled water or using water dispensers.  It was a success once again.

The Field Library once again housed a spectacular showing of Conway talent.  A steady stream of attendees strolled through the marble rooms that showcased the many talents of the artists.  Paintings, photographs, spectacular fairies, 3 dimensional tools, carvings and much more.  Just below the exhibit, the library sold an incredible assortment of used books.  A real bonanza!

There was a continued stream of people lining up to meet the authors at the Book Signing tent.  Once again, Holly Hobbie greeted her fans.  The talent was amazing… Amy Dryansky, Bill MacLeish, John Crowley, Peter Jeswald, Eve Brown-Waite, Sophie Page.

Across the street, the Town Hall and Memorial Park was packed with people.  200 pounds of fried dough was sold, most of it with Boyden’s Maple Cream.  Café Conway supplied coffee and tea and every kind of homemade baked good that one could imagine. And if you needed something cold to drink, you may have stopped by to purchase some freshly pressed cider with apples donated by UMASS Cold Spring Orchards.  (The apples left over were dispersed to Conway Grammar School, Frontier Regional High School and a food bank.)  We were fortunate to have Snow’s Ice Cream provide some of their creamy favorites to the delight of many.

The parade was showcased by the Frontier Regional High School Band and they hit the mark once again.  The GSB float, drawn by two majestic horses rained candy on the hundreds of kids lining the street.  Antique cars and tractors, military honorees, hot-wheeled lawn mowers, fire trucks, scout troops, and much more delighted the on-lookers.  Inside Town Hall, the quilts of Carol Angell were beautiful to see, and Ute Bargmann’s hand weaving was wonderful as usual.  The candy makers were out in full force this year and this writer’s personal favorite was Rena Moore’s Chambord chocolates. OMG!  The front entry was decorated by Lillian Jackman and our walkway by Natural Roots. The raffle was another huge success and the layout of generous donations was staggering.  The drawing is a wonderful way to end a full day! And none of it could operate without our two Information booths, the largest of which went under a major overhaul this year by the generosity of Doug Baker. A postnote: A distress call came hours after the Festival closed.  The caller had lost her wallet.  A good Samaritan handed it in to Lee Whitcomb at the Info Booth and Lee returned it to the owner Monday evening. Small town treasures. They are everywhere. And many, many of these treasures volunteered together in great harmony and purpose to bring to you the 48th annual Festival of the Hills.  We hope you enjoyed it!  See you next year at the 49th!