If it could be made with peaches, it was there. Peach cobbler, peach pie, peach cupcakes, peach ice cream, peach jam, and even peach salsa.
All this and much more drew a crowd of nearly 400 to Wesley United Methodist Church on Richmond Avenue last Saturday for their Third Annual Peach Festival. And, it was all free.
In addition to the myriad peach deserts were charcoal broiled hamburgers, with all the fixings, pretzels, chips, cakes, and snow cones. The crowd was also treated to a wide variety of entertainment, games, face painting, and, as an added treat this year, a model train display.
"This event is part of our community outreach program. We are a very neighborhood-oriented church. We want people to get to know us," said Nancy Nixon, co-coordinator of the event, along with Mary Pryor.
"We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary next April. The commemoration will be initiated this September," said Jim Sohn, chairman, Board of Trustees. "To get ready, we are building a new meditation center and have put in a lot of new landscaping."
A real crowd pleaser was "That Yo Yo Guy." Also known as Dick Stohr from Springfield, he is a yo yo expert who puts on demonstrations at events and teaches yo yo techniques at various schools throughout the region.
"I first started playing with yo yo's in elementary school in Cincinnati back in the 50's," he said. "Now this is my full time job. I go to elementary schools to teach yo-yoing. I quit my day job six years ago because this is a lot more fun."
PRIOR TO THIS career, Stohr spent 10 years in the U.S. Navy. Then he became a U.S. Department of Defense contractor. "But, I got tired of worrying about the government paying me so I could pay my employees. It just wasn't worth it anymore," he said.
"I heard about a class in yo-yoing being given by the PE teacher at Cameron Elementary School and a Yo Yo Club he had established there, so I signed up. I recently went with the club to the world championship event in Vermont," Stohr said.
Last Saturday he was demonstrating how to manipulate a yo yo that is not attached to the string. He also had a host of yo yo's for various tricks. Stohr does appearances throughout the mid-Atlantic states year round.
ANOTHER PART of the outdoor entertainment was a series of modern dance performances by students of the Terry School of Dance and Gymnastics located in the Woodlawn Shopping Center. They have 450 students enrolled and have "been a part of the community for 30 years," according to Terry Peyton, who owns the studio with her husband.
"We are very thankful that the church invited us to perform. The kids are having a great time," Peyton said. "Some of the ladies here, with their children, were students of mine when they were kids."
Among the routines were "Alien Attack," which featured a 14 member all boy cast, and "She's Got The Look," a modern dance routine by six teenage girls. There were also demonstrations of gymnastic exhibitions performed to music.
The church meeting room was transformed into a three track model railroad display created by the Crescent Model Railroaders. An O-Gauge hi-rail modular club with members throughout the Washington area, the club displays their layouts at a variety of venues across the region. This was a first for the church's festival.
"We do this type display several times throughout the year, plus we do scale model train shows at places like the Dulles Center and the Maryland Fairgrounds," said Paul Juola, a member operating Saturday's display. "We also do a full display at the Woodley Elementary School around Christmas every year."
Ted Rabusseau, a resident of Mount Vernon and the club member responsible for creating the display at the festival, explained, " We have three tracks running today. It took about three hours to assemble. It's all done with modular units that are built to specification which makes it quite simple to assemble."
MEMBERS OF A modular club each build their own layout module following a common set of specifications. The tracks are permanently attached to the module and wired to a standard set of electrical connectors. These modules can then be easily hooked together to form a large model train layout, according to club literature.
On the church grounds, children amused themselves in the Bounce Room and by participating in various games such as Fishing For Treasure or attempting to throw rings into pre-positioned coffee cans nailed to a slanted board. There was also face painting and a chance to climb aboard a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department fire truck for the more adventurous.
There was ample for food for children and adults alike. Cooks George Talbot and Jeff Nees kept the hamburgers coming from their dual charcoal grills while other sampled the wide variety of peach deserts washed down by soda and snow cones.
"The turnout is beyond our wildest dreams. It's really nice to see the surprise on people's faces when they realize it's all free," said the church's pastor, Reverend Teresa Smith, as she moved around the festival enthusiasts.
Wesley United Methodist Church's annual festival is a living testament to a recent press release from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. It stated: "Peaches are one of the most versatile fruits around. You can puree them, saute them, or flambe them...They can be frozen, canned, baked, or grilled... The taste of a fresh, juicy, just picked Virginia grown peach still warm from the tree is a little taste of heaven."