Rain couldn’t keep the crowds away from Mount Vernon’s annual celebration of everything chocolate Saturday, June 1.
According to judges Marilyn Dean Schnittjer and Roch Player, the festival had their largest number of competitors in all age divisions in several years. Winners in the children’s division were Brittan Miller with Oreo sushi, Owen Brade in second with a chocolate mixed berry cake, and third to Spencer Moellering with his speedy little bars.
In the adult division, first place went to Mary Horst for her Sweetie pie. Second place went to Tara Darling for the chocolate berry cake and Samantha Hammon third for the flourless chocolate tart.
Dusty Swelha kicked the morning off at The Plantiful Pantry with a cacao ceremony, focused on the healing nature of chocolate. Attendees drank from cacao from Puerto Rico, and Swelha led them through a guided meditation for the morning.
Another new event at this year’s festival was the search for the Golden Tickets. A total of 10 chocolate bars were hidden in various uptown Mount Vernon businesses for searchers to go and find. The first bar wasn’t turned into Chocolate Stroll headquarters until roughly noon, with the remaining nine bars discovered by 2:30 p.m.
An overall winner was drawn from those who found the tickets at 3 p.m., and participants from locales like Marion, Tiffin, Swisher, Solon, the state of Washington, and Lisbon were among the eight who stayed to the 3 p.m. final drawing.
The winner was Brooks Compton of Mount Vernon, who said the hunt for the bar was very hard. He located his golden ticket at The Local in uptown Mount Vernon.
“This basket is heavy,” Compton said on getting his prize of multiple chocolates.
His favorite chocolate is “Hershey’s.”
Other events throughout the day included the return of the Point 5K fun run and free chocolate birthday cake at White Tree Bakery for celebrating the 15 year anniversary of the festival.
At the end of the day, committee chair Sherene Player recounted a conversation she had during the day with an attendee.
“She was just blown away by the festival,” Player said. “She said she was surprised with how many wonderful shops were in our downtown, and felt like she was in a movie set wondering the downtown. She said that she would be telling more of her friends about the place and coming back to shop at Mount Vernon again.”
For Player, that’s the most important part of this festival. Sure, there’s chocolate and multiple vendors everywhere.
“But this is also a festival that is here to draw more people into our shops in the downtown and discover what they have to offer,” Player said. “It’s organized in a way to draw more people to these businesses in our uptown.”
Golden Ticket celebration
Nathan Countryman, Editor
June 6, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.