City welcomes Strawberry Festival to town at Opening Ceremony
Raising the Flag 
County Commission President Sam Nolte 
Strawberry Essay Winner — Mia Sappey 
Strawberry Festival Committee President Sandra Bennett 
Lighting the Strawberry 
Strawberry Royalty led an Art Walk around town 
Art Walk: Greg Cartwright at AmeriPrise 
Art Walk: Meeka (Linda Hicks) at Tateep Boutique 
Art Walk: Lew Dobbins at Artistry on Main 
Art Walk: ChrizArt at Trumps Salon 
Art Walk: Lew Dobbins at Artistry on Main 
Art Walk: Sara Golden at Artistry on Main 
Beautiful music from the Choral Society
STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL – MAYOR GREETINGS AT COURTHOUSE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2019
Good afternoon & greetings from City Hall. On behalf of our entire City Council and our 85 fulltime employees, I’m honored as always to welcome everyone to our 78th Strawberry Festival. “Strawberry Roads Take Me Home” indeed!
We welcome you all to what is simply our community’s biggest week of the year in Buckhannon.
Our City is so pleased as always to partner with the Festival Association to create a spectacular week of fun for our residents & visitors alike. And- our City gets into the ceremonial events’ scene as well.
At 3:00 p.m. today at our public safety complex- we’ll honor our late, former Police Chief, Fred Gaudet who died in 1999, as our third annual Wilbert “Webb” Grubb honoree. Webb Grubb was our only City police officer to die in the line of duty. We’ll also dedicate the new Wall of Blue during this ceremony. Tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. at our Stockert Youth & Community Center, we’ll honor a surprise 14th Service to Youth Champion. On Friday at 3:00 again at the public safety complex, Friendly Way Day will see our Fire Department recognize their 13th Friendly Way Day honoree, our late firefighter, Joe Bennett, who died in 2006. We’ll also dedicate Joe’s bronzed firefighter’s coat during this ceremony.
When you think of Buckhannon, I think the first three things that quickly come to mind for most folks are- our beautiful downtown, West Virginia Wesleyan College- and ta-dah- our Strawberry Festival! It’s hard to imagine our town without our beloved, annual Festival. Please remember to thank those who volunteer their time so liberally & lovingly to make sure we realize another fantastic Festival. I’ll look forward to seeing you all during the parades. I’ll be in an old blue convertible with seven or so monkey grandchildren pelting Festival parade spectators with suckers & bubble gum. May the weather gods be kind to us!
I also come bearing gifts- first, our teen queen, & former Buckhannon resident, Gracie Marsh. Next, our three-time Strawberry King, Joseph Robinson, he’s got a real dynasty thing going on. And finally, our beautiful 2019 Queen, Cassidy Myers. Congratulations to you all! Enjoy a terrific Festival week in Buckhannon everyone!
Media: Callie Cronin Sams, callie.csams@buckhannonwv.org or (304) 472-1651