Niagara-on-the-Lake’s annual Peach Festival made its return to Queen Street on Saturday with crowds like never before.
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., sunny skies and warm weather kept the streets packed full with NOTLers and visitors alike, taking in the fruit-flavoured treats, live music and a live-judged peach pie contest.
Some residents said the huge crowds were larger than they ever remembered with cars parked on streets nearly a kilometre from the festival as people struggled to find a spot.
But all the visitors were a positive for the NOTL businesses and vendors along the street — and for the charitable organizations set up along the routes to the festival, including the NOTL Fire Department.
All day long, firefighters stood at all entrances to the festival collecting donations in their boots for Muscular Dystrophy Canada.
“We’ve been doing it for 40 plus years. We missed a couple due to COVID, but we’ve raised over $280,000 total to date,” district chief Dayton Kruitbosch said.
Collecting donations is always a fun time and allows the firefighters to connect with the community, he said.
As of Wednesday morning, the total collected stood at $10,730.77.
And the fire department wasn’t the only group hard at work fundraising.
Realtors from McGarr-Revel Realty partnered with Lepp Farms to sell peaches in support of Red Roof Retreat.
Red Roof provides quality respite care and programs for children, youth and young adults with special needs and their families across the region.
“Instead of just a real estate information booth, we saw the opportunity to give back to the community and that was possible because of the generosity from the farm,” realtor Joy Miele told The Lake Report.
More than $5,000 was raised for Red Roof throughout Saturday’s festival.
“Giving back to the community and volunteering — that’s something that’s important to all of us,” Miele said.
On Sunday, the big crowds made their way to St. Vincent de Paul Church for its annual festival, where visitors enjoyed fruit and treats, along with live music and a bazaar selling books and antiques.
Volunteer Terry Choules said the day helped raise money for the parish.
“Whatever we make goes toward the renovations at the hall and the church itself is going to be 200 years old in 2026, so some of the money will be used to prep for that,” Choules said.
He thanked all of the volunteers who helped organize the event.
“We have such a great group of people every year and we have a lot of returnees,” he said.
