By Weber Way to Wellness Reporter

Harvest Fest Vendors and Participants as well as Runners Had an Extra Special Halloween in 2015

Clermont’s Harvest Festival was hugely successful for vendors and participants as Halloween was a big hit for local cross country runners.

The goal of the Harvest Fest was to bring business to the whole area and new people in from far away. Highly motivated visionaries and Downtown Clermont Board members, Erika Shanoff and Bill Carter, quickly came up with the Harvest Fest idea and made it happen.

Vendors came as far away as Marietta, Georgia. Others traveled from Micanopy and Merritt Island to be here and they plan to return.

“We want to make it an annual event,” said the smiling Shanoff who is the owner of Erika’s Tea Room and Gifts and a creator of monthly innovative events within her business.
Shanoff has monthly Bookin’ and Cookin’ Club meetings with over 70 varieties of tea from all over the world where they serve lunch every day except Monday.

During the Harvest Fest, people of all ages strolled down Montrose Street in their best costumes looking around to see what caught their eye like vendors like Kats Kreations Lucky Bamboo, Scentsy, and Homemade soaps. Halloweeners enjoyed learning of new vendors like Florida Totalcom.

“We had a lot of folks who are curious about our internet service. No one has heard of us before, so this was a great event for us,” said a rep with Florida Totalcom who traveled from Marion County.

The activities surrounding the Harvest Fest stirred a lot of spooks and interest well into late night. The Historical Village became a Haunted Village where the first teachers came back to life in Clermont’s very small, first-ever classroom.

Sommersports put on the 5k Nightmare on the Clermont Trails where runners ran at 7pm through spook stations on the trail with the race ending in the Harvest Fest. A giant spider and black cat hovered over runners as they crossed the finish line in front of a crowd of excited spectators.

Demetri Mancini, a sophomore on the South Lake Eagles cross country team, crossed the line first.

“I loved it. It was really fun and relatively easy, since it was a flat course,” exclaimed Mancini as he received his first place finisher’s medal.

Clermont’s Real Life Christian Academy cross country star, Cadi Rowe, was the second place female to cross the line.

With the cross country season coming to a close, runners took advantage of the unique races.

Alicia Weber was the only runner from South Lake to compete in the Zombie 5k Beach Run on New Smyrna Beach where she took first place female overall and survived the zombies.

The race was to be very different and difficult where runners could earn “I survived” shirts if they escaped from the 3-5 Zombies set every quarter mile along the beach. They would chase you and if tagged, then you don’t survive.

Deland high school boys cross country team dominated the top spots, but they agreed it was very tiring as some did not survive the Zombies. “The times were much slower as you are running conservatively and then sprinting fast and zig zagging off course to escape fast moving Zombies,” mentioned Dylan Beck, AJ Williams, and Tyler Rollins.

“The race was built in interval training and I loved it,” added Jennifer Alonso who ran the race for the first time and plans to do some hilly Clermont races.

“I was drafting behind Alicia and when she took on the Zombies and got off course, I got ahead of her and beat her by two seconds,” said Dan Finnane who finished 7th overall in the Beach 5k.

Between the Clermont and New Smyrna uniquely themed Halloween races in conjunction with the Harvest Fest, cross country runners were on Cloud 9 and they had extra special Halloween. At least, Alicia Weber did.

“This is definitely my most exciting Halloween ever and the first time I competed on Halloween. My race victory, new friends, and fun at Harvest Fest make it the best Halloween for me,” exclaimed Weber.

END OF REPORT