BELPRE - The 32nd annual Belpre Apple Butter Stir Off will be Saturday and Sunday at Howes Grove Park on Washington Boulevard.
Admission is $2 at the gate. The event will feature two days of live entertainment, games, inflatables, concessions, clowns, face painting, quilters, crafts and other activities. Local groups and organizations will have booths of their wares and information, said event co-chair Willene Bacon.
The Belpre Lions Club uses the proceeds from the event to help the club purchase eyeglasses and hearing aids for community members, she said.
Among the new activities for this year's event will be children's inflatables from Fun Factory, a country store, pumpkin carving and a "Guess the weight of the pumpkin" contest, Bacon said.
There will also be an inflatable for adults, Bacon said. From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the Peoples Bank Money Machine will be set up at the stir off. People will have the chance to get in the inflatable, which will have money flying around inside it, and grab as much as they can in a set amount of time, she said.
During both days of the event, Pioneer Presbyterian Church and Boy Scout Troop 91 will be making fresh apple butter and selling it by pints and quarts during the Stir Off.
Fact Box
Entertainment schedule
SATURDAY
10 a.m.: Opening
10:30 a.m.: Miss Apple of Your Eye Pageant
Noon: Jodi Haught
1 p.m.: Buckeye Travelers
2 p.m.: Jodi Haught
3 p.m.: Buckeye Travelers
4 p.m.: Tom and Carol Wriston
5 p.m.: Lisa and Jerry Queen
SUNDAY
Noon: Uncle Sam
12:15 p.m.: Jodi Haught
1 p.m.: Bert Hayes
2 p.m.: Plan B
4 p.m.: Jodi Haught
The apple butter has been made each year by the two groups for more than 16 years. Members of the church and Scouts will show festival attendees how to stir the condiment in copper kettles over open fires during the event. It took two weeks of evening work for the apple butter to go from fresh, whole apples to the finished product.
The Scouts' earnings go to the individual boys' accounts to be used for summer camp and other special projects. The church uses the proceeds for general projects. In the past, the troop has made about 220 gallons of apple butter with members of the Pioneer Presbyterian Church for years to sell at the festival, primarily using apples grown in and around Belpre.
