Certain foods just sum up their season. Strawberries in the late spring, corn on the cob in the heat of summer, pumpkins in the chill of fall, peppermint at Christmas.
But chocolate? That’s February. For some, that might seem like a Valentine’s Day thing, and while I’ve got nothing against a heart-shaped box of soft centers, well, that’s not the whole story in Philipsburg.
For 10 years, February has meant something else. The Philipsburg Main Street Program’s annual Chocolate Festival. It’s a chocolate-palooza. An extravaganza of chocolate deliciousness.
And if you think your hips can’t afford for you to spend a whole afternoon getting up close and personal with chocolate in all its yummy forms, I’m pretty sure that eating dessert for a good cause makes it calorie- free.
That’s what I’m telling people, anyway.
On Feb. 18, the Main Street Program’s Promotion Committee will open the doors at Club Squared on Second Street from noon to 3 p.m.
For just $3 apiece, attendees can eat their way through a cocoa-riffic landscape of goodies submitted by local chocolate enthusiasts.
To submit your chocolate masterpiece, register by calling 342-2260 (or visiting www.philipsburgpa.org), and bring your yummy submission (with at least 150 tiny tasting portions) to the festival between 11:30 a.m. and noon.
Attendees will munch on cookies, candies, cakes and pies, voting for their favorites by putting their money where their mouths have been.
The dish that gets the most love in each division will win the Chocolate Lover’s Choice award and walk away with $50 for the adult group and $25 for youth.
The event does raise some money for the Main Street Program’s work of helping existing businesses and bringing in new ones, but as a promotion committee event, that’s only half the story.
The rest is about bringing people together in the downtown to see how much fun Philipsburg can really be. So to sum it up, it’s all you can eat chocolate plus fun with friends plus fundraising to make local businesses even better. How sweet it is.
Lori Falce writes a weekly column on news in the Philipsburg area. She can be reached at send lorinews@gmail.com.
