Preparing for strawberry festivalare from left to right, Danny Presnell, Beverly Presnell, Heather Schrader, all of Lehigh. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Anyone who has driven down Leeland Heights Blvd. in the fall just before Halloween knows where the Pumpkin Patch Church is. Thousands of pumpkins are sold each year at the site.

Now the First Community Congregational Church wants to be known for something else.

It’s holding its first Strawberry Festival on Saturday, Feb. 26 and is preparing the best strawberries from anywhere, Plant City, and Pastor Deb Frysinger says she hopes the church will also become known for its luscious strawberry ice cream festival.

“Our volunteers are slicing strawberries all week,” Frysinger said. They’re being put in lots of plastic bags for a few days before Saturday when the festivities begin.

Danny Presnell, one of the volunteers, said the church has purchased “10 flats” of strawberries. Each flat has four two-pound packages of strawberries and each package holds between 30 and 35 strawberries.

Do the math. That’s thousands of strawberries that will be offered for sale Saturday almost anyway you want them in a bow alone or with vanilla ice cream, or with Cool Whip.

“Everybody knows the best strawberries are from Plant City. People all over the state wait until now to get them fresh. They’re the best,” Frysinger said.

The volunteers who have been taking their turns to cut up the strawberries said they are not using sugar, but a little bit of artificial sweetener.

“That makes them just perfect,” Frysinger said.

“People may not know who we are or where we are, but they do know the location of the Pumpkin Patch Church,” she said. “When we were thinking about our snowbirds and what we used to do way back when the idea of an ice cream social was born, we got an idea.

“We decided to bring back the old-fashioned ice cream social to the community. We’ll look forward to people coming together with hope and enthusiasm and let’s call it our Strawberry Ice Cream Festival.

“Who knows, maybe we will have two things we are noted for, our Pumpkin Patch and our new Strawberry Festival.”

The first annual Strawberry ice cream Festival will be held at the church at 200 E. Leeland Heights blvd from 3 to 6 p.m.

Not only will there be strawberries, but they will also be offering a menu that includes shredded chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, chili dogs, angel food cake, short cake, drinks, vanilla ice cream and lots of strawberries.

“We’re buying the ice cream and will offer strawberries in dishes for a dollar.

“An example will be shortcake or cake on both, $1, ice cream, $1 strawberries, $1 dollar and Cool Whip on top free. If you just want two things, it will be $2, etc.,” Frysinger said.

“And the sandwiches are chicken for $2; hot dogs, $1.50; chili dogs; $2, chips for 60 cents and a soft drink for only a dollar.

“We think it’s going to be a great day and we’ve got plenty of strawberries. We hope everyone will come on out and enjoy the afternoon,” Frysinger said.