July 25, 2002
More than 400 people swarmed onto the grounds of the Wesley United Methodist Church in Mount Vernon on Saturday to participate in the Second Annual Peach Festival.
In addition to the peach cobbler, peach sundaes, and other peach goodies, there was entertainment, games, and community fellowship, all for free.
"This is our way of creating community spirit. All the food is provided by the church and all the entertainment and games are from volunteers," said Nancy Nixon, co-coordinator of the event, along with Mary Pryor.
Located at 8412 Richmond Avenue, just off Richmond Highway across from the new South County Government Center, the church is situated in the center of a Mount Vernon neighborhood. "This is only our second year and it has been very successful," said Pastor Teresa Smith.
In addition to the various peach options, there were hot dogs, hamburgers, and snow cones among the food choices. Children's games featured the Moon Bounce, face painting, bean bag toss, and a lolly pop garden.
ONE OF THE entertainment segments featured the Capital Harmonic Club under the direction of Jack Hopkins. Drawing members from throughout the Washington metropolitan area, they meet in the church on a weekly basis, according to Hopkins.
"We have 16 members in our group. They come from throughout the area stretching from Occoquan to Silver Spring," Hopkins said. "We've been together for 14 years."
In addition to entertaining the crowd, they also donated harmonicas as prizes for the kids games. "Who knows we might get a new player," Hopkins said.
Roving throughout the crowd were Fran and Buddy West as clowns and bagpiper, Steve Higgins.
"The reason it's called the Peach Festival is that one of our members, Tony Vancheri, has a peach orchard in Warrenton and he donates the peaches," Nixon explained. "But, this year the harvest is running behind so we had to import them from another supplier."