Strong support

Chicken barbecue, car show both prove popular

A community favourite is back.

A crew of dedicated volunteers were working hard May 28 cooking barbecue chicken as a fundraiser for the Woodville Community Centre as part of Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival weekend. It was the 49th year the fundraiser has been held but the first since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The community support is amazing. I couldn’t believe the amount of volunteers that came out,” centre president Dan Keddy said just prior to the first meals being served up.

He said it takes about 200 volunteers to make the event possible and those volunteers came from Woodville and surrounding communities.

The fire started at 6 a.m. and the first pieces of chicken went on at 7 a.m. Organizers started planning for the event in January and decided to cook 2,520 pieces this year. Pre-COVID they were selling 3,600. And the thirst for the meal is still there as they soldout of tickets on May 26.

"It’s been overwhelming," Keddy said, as the temperature hit 25 C in Kentville around 11 a.m. “This is beautiful and the blossoms are out.

You couldn’t ask for a better day. This is phenomenal.”

The centre was saving to

pave the parking lot preCOVID. They had to use some of its savings, coupled with some grants, to keep operations going through the pandemic. Now it is hoping it can return to the projects they were working on before March 2020.

“Seeing this come back is going to be huge,” Keddy said of the fundraiser.

In Coldbrook, the car show proved popular once again.

Lake Echo residents John and Cathy Muise were at the show with their 1965 Ford Fairlane.

"There’s not too many car shows down in my area anymore so now you have to go out of town,” he said. “But I love car shows. If I can travel, I’ll go.”

He had a Fairlane in 1965 and bought one about 20 years ago to restore.

“If I never had one back in that year, I would never had bought this one. It brings back memories."

The show started at 10 a.m. and by noon there were 210 entries and more than 1,000 people had attended the event, which ended at 3 p.m.

“We’re car fanatics,” Muise said. “Every time you come to a car show, you see something different.”

While it was his first Apple Blossom Festival car show, it won't be his last.

"If it’s on next year, I’ll be back."