For many reasons, the 2021 Florida Strawberry Festival is not going to be like any other.
When the festival announced the headline entertainment had been canceled, many took to social media both in support of the decision and vehemently against it. The reality is the pandemic is far from over and as of yet the vaccine has not been widely distributed. In an abundance of caution and in an effort to protect volunteers, both St. Clement Catholic Church and the East Hillsborough Historical Society have announced their strawberry shortcake booths will not be at this year’s festival.
“Due to the culpability of possibly exposing our volunteers to the virus which has ended the earthly lives of over 380,000 Americans, and with all due consideration to the average age of our volunteers, our board of directors feel this is the best decision we can make at this time,” Shelby Bender, President & Executive Director of the East Hillsborough Historical Society, Inc., said. “The rollout and facilitation of the much-needed vaccine for the virus has gotten off to a slow start and since over 80 percent of our volunteers fall in the high-risk category, we feel that we must make the health and safety of our volunteers the pinnacle of our decision.”
St. Clement Catholic Church, which is known for its build-your-own-shortcake booth, echoed the sentiment. Jessica Bazley, PR Coordinator for St. Clement’s Make Your Own Shortcake Project, said that any way they sliced it, it was a “nightmare.” The church wanted to find a way to make it happen, but the math simply didn’t add up. The booth has 35 volunteers for the morning shift, 35 in the evening and more than 100 total that prep berries each morning in Cronin Hall.
“If one person got quarantined that first Thursday, the entire shift — every single person they came in contact with — would need to quarantine as well,” Bazley said. “We could not figure out a way to keep our patrons safe and keep our volunteers safe. We had multiple meetings about it, we prayed about it, we didn’t know what to do and really were conflicted about it because it does a lot of good. The money we raise we use for our outreach and our community programs. But it was just too risky.”
Bazley said St. Clement prepared for the possibility it might not return this year to the festival. As the pandemic continued, the church took precautions and began financially planning to not have the income from the booth in 2021. The funds raised were always designed to be “bonus money” which the church uses for programs and outreaches the church runs year-round. And it’s a hefty fundraiser: last year alone it received $180,000 from the booth for its programs.
On average, St. Clement alone sells more than 100,000 shortcakes a year. The lines wrap around the building. No matter what time of day you go, there’s a crowd of people itching to get their hands on the sweet treat. There was no way to protect the sheer number of volunteers needed to have any semblance of control over the social distancing of customers. So rather than risk everyone’s health, the church chose to step aside for one year.
The East Hillsborough Historical Society, Inc. is facing the same issue. Bender said the income it derives from the shortcake booth is its main source of funding. She said that she and the organization’s members, volunteers and supporters will “truly miss being a part of the Florida Strawberry Festival in 2021, but we all have the best wishes for everyone as we work through the coming year and look for better days to come.”
Florida Strawberry Festival President Paul Davis said he understood why the decision was made by each organization, especially since both rely so heavily on volunteers.
“We’re going to have a festival this year, but it’s going to be different. It’s going to be a lot different,” Davis said. “We aren’t going to have our MainStage entertainment because it would require people sitting close together and we aren’t going to allow that. We are going to have more on-grounds entertainment because you can social distance with that. But we will see other changes as well. A lot of the senior volunteers we have had in the past are not going to be able to come and I’m sure the COVID fears are a big part of that. As far as St. Clement’s, they rely on a couple hundred volunteers and a lot of them don’t feel comfortable going out and that’s not going to happen… It’s the same exact situation with the Historical Society.”
Davis said the festival strongly believes it should not have a build-your-own shortcake experience this year for attendees. There’s no way it can follow CDC guidelines and keep the tools used by the public sanitized. But at the end of the day, he said, they are the Florida Strawberry Festival so shortcake will be available to those who want some.
The festival is currently having conversations with a few other organizations to take up the mantle and provide shortcake this year. It may look different, but some form of shortcake will be provided. There are still a lot of pieces he said they have to juggle, like finding a way to serve safely and get procedures in place to constantly sanitize the tables in the seating areas around the festival, but Davis said they are determined to figure it out.
Both St. Clement and the East Hillsborough Historical Society have promised to return in 2022.