Students & Staff Enjoy Festive Food and Fun at Nanuet’s Annual Fall Festival

Members+of+the+Nanuet+community%2C+including+students+and+staff+mingle+at+the+annual+event.+

Owen Whelan

Members of the Nanuet community, including students and staff mingle at the annual event.

October 30th’s fall festival saw members of Nanuet’s community come together to celebrate the changing of seasons. Food trucks, vendors, and organizations in Nanuet’s community flocked to Lake Nanuet for an important town tradition. 

Many Nanuet students, like Senior Ava Carey, volunteer for the festival. According to Carey, the experience is always rewarding.

“As a founding member of the Junior Chamber and now president of the committee, I’ve worked at so many of these events and I would have to say the Fall Festival exceeded our expectations, ” she said. “This year’s fall festival had a huge turnout, including students from all across the district, small businesses within Nanuet, and bigger businesses from all over New York.”

Interacting with younger members of the Nanuet community added to a sense of community and was valuable to the experience, Carey explained.

Established in 2019, the Nanuet Junior Chamber of Commerce has had a presence at various fairs and events in the community, including the Nanuet Street Fair. Open to grades 9-12, the organization is committed to bringing Nanuet together by creating leadership opportunities.

“Since [its] inception[,] students have worked closely with the [non-junior] Nanuet Chamber to assist in coordinating events,” according to the Chamber’s online mission statement.

Foodies were pleasantly surprised during this year’s Fall Festival, which offered fresh apple cider donuts, Korean barbeque, bubble tea, hotdogs, gourmet popcorn and more. Both children and adults were also able to partake in activities such as pumpkin picking and a trunk-or-treat event.

Teachers from Nanuet, like Mrs. Kearns, also enjoyed the event. 

“The Fall Festival was a fantastic community event organized by the Rotary/Interact and Chamber of Commerce/Junior Chamber,” she said. “There was a variety of vendors selling handmade crafts, jewelry, and clothing.” 

There was enough variety in the event for everyone, especially for children looking to do fall-themed activities, according to Kearns.

The Nanuet Fall Festival had a similar turnout to this year’s Street Fair, as both saw members of the community coming out to support local businesses and engage in events. Both are free-admission annual events. And, according to Carey, there is more on the horizon.

“Aside from the Nanuet Chamber of Commerce, we have so many events coming up this year that we can’t wait to share with the community,” she said.