Rotary Club to host Westborough Spring Festival
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough - A mix of old and new and tried and true will be featured at the sixth annual Westborough Spring Festival, which will be held Saturday April 26 and Sunday April 27.

The Westborough Spring Festival is presented each year by the Westborough Rotary Club, which uses the event as its primary fund-raising eff ort of the season. Many of the funds raised are earmarked for the Rotary's scholarship program, which provides many area students with financial assistance when they make the transition from high school to college.

"Everything is really coming together nicely," said Kathy Wilfert, chair of the Westborough Spring Festival. "We're bringing back some of the events that are favorites of the festival attendees every year and we're adding some new things that we think people will like, too."

" While a complete list of Spring Festival events can be found online at www.westboroughspringfestival. org, some of the more notable events on the Saturday of the festival include the Civic Club-sponsored fishing challenge and the Lions Club Italian Dinner.

The Spring Festival's Sunday highlights include the 5K road race, tethered hot-air balloon rides, a food festival, a bakeoff with categories for men, women and children, a classic car show, a doggie spa, and dog show.

Because the Westborough High School's April vacation is the same week that the Spring Festival will be held, the kids' carnival, always a favorite, will not be held.

There will still be plenty of stuff for kids to explore and investigate, however, as several town departments will provide, among other things, a police cruiser, a fire truck and several pieces of heavy equipment. Also at the festival will be the Worcester County Sheriff Department's Mobile Command Vehicle.

Wilfert said she expects a large turnout for the fishing challenge, which debuted last year and will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Minuteman Park.

"We got a great turnout last year, a couple hundred people," Wilfert said. "We're hoping even more people, especially kids, will come and take part this year."

On hand at the fishing challenge will be members of the Westborough Community Land Trust as well as the Mass. Department of Wildlife, who will be helping Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts work on merit badges involving fish, wildlife and the environment.

Another event that should again be a festival favorite is the Chili and Chowder Challenge, being organized by Westborough Selectman Lydia Goldblatt and Town Clerk Nancy Yendriga.

Restaurants already penciled in to participate in the challenge and provide samples include the 1790 House, the DoubleTree Hotel in Westborough, Ted's Montana Grill, Roche Bros. Supermarket, Canyon Café and the Texas BBQ in Northborough. Others invited include the Grafton Inn, Pepper's Catering and Chef DuJour.

Any other establishment interested in participating is encouraged to contact Goldblatt or Yendriga at Town Hall.

Another event creating a stir is the Second Annual Good Old-Fashioned Bake-Off, which is being organized and coordinated by Carol Burtt Borglund, who can be reached via e-mail at CarolBurttBorg@ aol.com.

Borglund said there are categories of the bake-off for men, women and children. Among the food that will be judged are cakes, pies, muffins, breads and cookies.

While the complete list of rules are on the festival website, Borglund said the keys to remember are that everything must be made from scratch, recipes need to be included, pre-registration is a must and that drop-off of bake-off entries will be 11 a.m. Sunday with judging competed by 2 p.m. Sunday.