Fall Festival at Swansons was October 22-23. This was a fabulous weekend event full of family fun! We filled our North Greenhouse with Autumn-themed kids’ activities and games, and even a few baby goats! It was a whirlwind of fun from tractor hay rides to Pumpkin Putt Putt to racing veggie cars to autumn arts and crafts.
This year, we were thrilled to donate ticket proceeds from Fall Festival to Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW), a program of Seattle Tilth. This program is a-m-a-zing! You may have even met a few of their friendly volunteers over the weekend! As their website states, “Seattle Youth Garden Works empowers homeless and underserved youth to develop job skills through urban farm-based education and employment.” You can safely bet we’ve been enthusiastic about supporting this educational and empowering program!
We have some huge “thanks!” to send out to our community partners who helped make this event such a great success. Along with SYGW, veggies were generously donated by Whole Foods Market, Holman Road QFC, and Shoreline Central Market. If veggies aren’t for dinner, it’s hard to think of a better way to use them than for racing! We saw cucumber racers, eggplant racers, potato racers – with carrot drivers, broccoli passengers, and the occasional mushroom carriage. Who would you place your bets on?
Another amazing organization, Western Chief, helped make our activities extra special by donating adorable rain boots for kids to make whimsical garden art. Planting into a rain boot is not only a creative and fun activity, but it teaches kids about gardening in the process. Double win! We had so much fun with the Western Chief volunteers, too. Thanks for leading such a great activity!
The Ballard Kiwanis Club once again joined us for Fall Festival! They are a local organization that donates 100% of their profits from this event to Ryther Child Center. Offering hot dogs, popcorn, and other perfect festival snacks, we were so happy (with full stomachs) upon their return visit to Swansons. Yum!
Thank you to our partners and donors for making this event successful! And, of course, many thanks to all of you who came to join us during this fun weekend, your support makes these events possible! Make sure to put Fall Festival on your calendar for next year. We'll see you then!
