810-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, July 7,2001
|£ids
PARADISE (Lancaster Co.)
The art of the maze is taken very
seriously at Cherry-Crest Farm, a
working Holstein dairy operation
in the heart of the Pennsylvania
Dutch Country that each year
transforms a five-acre cornfield
into one of America’s most in
triguing labyrinths of paths.
Corny renderings have been
made of the Liberty Bell, Noah’s
Ark, an Amish buggy, a huge lo
comotive, even the solar system.
This year the maze reflects the
classic song Old MacDonald’s
Farm, with a gigantic barn, silo,
windmill and tractor neatly cut
out of rows of corn.
Open July 7 through October
27, Cherry-Crest Farm has ex
panded its roster of activities into
three venues the barnyard and
the courtyard, and the sixth an
nual Amazing Maize Maze " as
the headline event. More than a
walk through the stalks, Cherry-
Crest’s maze is the world’s larg
est interactive game with music,
kernels of knowledge and a
script, scenic bridges, clues and a
puzzle map to find the quickest
way out, an Amish phone booth
(hidden in an out-house!) and
Telestalks' to call for help, and
two maze masters to keep visitors
on track.
“Our goal,” states Maze Man
ager Rudy Kilgore, “is to make
each year’s design an extraordi
nary experience a maze that is
fun and educational, and genu
inely ties into the quality of life
on the farm.”
In addition to solving the maze
(this year visitors can choose be-
Pennies Add Up To Thousands For Charity
LINDA WILLIAMS
Bedford Correspondent
BREEZEWOOD (Bedford
Co.) How large is a million?
It’s a question to which the
students in grades kindergarten
through 12 at Breezewood Ele
mentary needed an answer.
Breezewood is a rural school
with a census ranging from 120
to 140. Being small, grades are
able to work on various projects
together.
The teachers thought about the
million question and came up
with various ideas. One thought
of a million pull tabs, another a
million bottle caps. “But that
kind of collection had no real
purpose,” says Cathy Clark, sec
ond grade teacher at Breeze
wood.
When someone suggested a
million pennies, Cathy liked the
idea so well, she volunteered to
chair the project.
A million pennies total $lO,OOO
and the next decision to be made
was, “What will we do with
$10,000?”
Students and teachers together
decided to donate $5,000 to char
ity and $5,000 would be saved for
a school project.
During the next seven years,
the students raised pennies by
having pizza parties, Sunday par
ties, popcorn parties, baby pic
ture contests, a pie in the fact
contest, and carnivals with a
Cherry-Crest Farm Expands To 10 Acres Of Fun For The Whole Family
tween an easy or difficult chal
lenge), Old MacDonald’s Farm
offers amusing diversions along
the way, from a misting station to
cool off, rubber duck races and a
pig calling contest, a cow that
can be milked like the Real
McCoy, a tractor and a “hay
mow” for climbing, a silo for slid
ing, a telescope to search for
clues in the hillside, even a corral
of saddled wooden horses that
educates and is fun for family
photographs.
The phone booth also comes in
handy for clues, as visitors can
call the maze office for a record
ing, or a friend who can use a
special code to locate a “You are
here” on the maze’s web site. A
web cam also gives web browsers
sneak peaks of maze activities.
And there’s still more to see
and do. In the courtyard there’s
the Furry Friends Petting Farm
where Daisy the Goat remains a
star attraction, a Hands-On Farm
Ed Center with interactive dis
plays and live baby chicks hatch
ery, a Kids’ Corral for outdoor
play, the Rain Room, plus great
rides like the Moon Trike Maze,
Cherry-Crest Farm Express, and
Hee-Haw Hay Ride that includes
guided tours of the 175-acre
working dairy and poultry opera
tion.
On an adjoining hillside is the
Barnyard, with the popular Hay
Jump Tent, Pumpkin Slinger and
Giant Hay Chute Slide, a scenic
farm-view walk, and Cherry-
Crest’s famous floral artwork
this year an 11,000 square foot
“Crowing Rooster and Sun”
dunking booth, sand art, ring
toss, and food booths.
“We did almost anything we
could think of to raise pennies,”
Cathy says.
The lessons learned were used
in math, social studies, commu
nity services, decision making
and self-esteem.
On Sunday afternoons, Cathy,
her husband, Jim, and several
other volunteers would get to
Breezewood Elementary students donated $l,OOO to DARE to combat drug usage.
Korner**
4*
EE-1-EE-I-...G0!
that’s created out of thousands of
petunias and marigolds. There
are six minute milk mazes that
are real brain teasers, and food
and picnic areas. During Septem
ber and October, the Barnyard is
also home to the Fall Farm Mar
ket, where visitors can pull an
express wagon through four
acres of pumpkins, popcorn, and
a field of 27 different varieties of
beautiful mums to pick and take
home.
There’s also a great schedule
of special events from Kids
Pedal Tractor Pulls to lively
Dairy and Com Exhibitions, a
series of Saturday Harvest
Roundup Festivals, plus a scenic
place to walk and enjoy a picnic
and the beautiful Lancaster
County countryside. You can
even catch a ride to the maze
aboard the historic Strasburg
Railroad’s short line steam train
that stops at Cherry-Crest Farm
throughout the day.
Location: Cherry-Crest Farm
is ideally situated in the heart of
the Pennsylvania Dutch Country
about eight miles east of Lancas
ter off of Rt. 741 two miles
east of Strasburg, Paradise
Township. Plenty of free parking
is available adjacent to the maze.
Summer hours (July 7 through
Aug. 31) are: Tuesday-Thursday,
10 a.m.-S p.m.; Friday-Saturday,
10 a.m. until dusk. Fall hours
(Sept. 1-Oct. 27 including all
legal holiday Mondays) are: Fri
day-Saturday, 10 a.m. until dusk,
Legal Holiday Mondays, 10 a.m.-
5 p.m. During September and
October, visitors can also trek
through four acres of pumpkins
gether to count the pennies and
transport them to the bank where
the Breezewood Elementary ac
count was rapidly growing.
Cathy laughingly admits she be
came almost addicted to pennies.
“I warned my husband that
any change in the washing ma
chine was fair game,” she says.
On a shopping trip she was de
lighted to find nearly 40 pennies
scattered about a parking lot.
and a field of 27 different variet
ies of mums, as part of Cherry-
Crest Farm’s “Pick Your Own
To Take Home” (Sept. 7-Oct. 27)
Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. until
dusk.
Open weather permitting. Last
entrance to the maze 90 minutes
prior to closing. Cherry-Crest
Farm is closed Sundays.
Admission to the farm (in
cludes the maze plus all activities
in the courtyard and barnyard) is
$9.50 (age 12 and over), $7.50 for
kids age 5 to 11, $5 for kids age
3-4. Last entrance to maze 90
minutes prior to closing. The
popular Flashlight Maze is held
Oct. 19-20 and Oct. 26-27, 7-11
Old MacDonald’s Farm sets the theme for this year’s
Amazing Maize Maze™ at Cherry-Crest Farm in Lancaster
County. Billed as the world’s largest interactive game, the
five acre mind boggier includes music, script and clues,
plus a full roster of down-home activities from hayrides
and pumpkin slinging to a Furry Friends Petting Farm and
Hands-On Farm Ed Center. Cherry-Crest is also famous
for its gigantic floral hillside artwork, like the 11,000
square foot Sun, Moon and Stars shown above that was
created out of petunias and marigolds.
This past spring, the goal of
one million pennies was achieved
with WTAJ television personality
Carolyn Donaldson putting in
the last penny.
An assembly complete with
cake and punch highlighted the
event with the children pres
enting checks to their favorite
charities. Included with the
Pennsylvania Association for the
Blind, the American Red Cross,
p.m. The only time the maze is
open after dark, the Flashlight
Maze offers a fright-free alterna
tive to Halloween. (Make sure to
bring your own flashlights!).
For more information and a
free brochure, call or write: Cher
ry-Crest Farm, 150 Cherry Hill
Road, Ronks, PA 17572. Tele
phone: (717) 687-6843. Fax; (717)
687-8143. Or check the web, at
www.cherrycrestfarm.com. There
is also a two-unit guest house
that incorporates a large play
area and private zoo for the kids.
The maze is available for school
tours, corporate team building
and company picnics, birthdays
and private parties.
the American Cancer Society, the
Bedford County Humane Society
and DARE.
Each organization was pres
ented with a $lOOO large plastic
covered check for hanging and a
small paper check for banking.
Students presented a program
with cutouts, hats and other
props. They had bits of philoso
phy and quaint bits of verse to
add to the presentations.
Teachers helping with the pro
duction of this program as well as
raising the pennies were Miriam
Peck, Bev Young, Carol Wichter
man, Jim Droz, and Kris Trout
man.
Students from each grade
reaching up to senior status were
also present. They were happy to
see the completion of the project
they started in their early ele
mentary years.
Twenty-four percent of tHe
total was raised the first year, 17
percent in the second; 15 percent
in the third; 12 percent in the
fourth; 15 percent in the fifth; 12
percent in the sixth; and the re
maining 5 percent during this
past year.
Cathy Clark’s husband, Jim,
emceed the event and pointed out
that an average of $16,873 was
raised during each nine month
school year. That equals 794 pen
nies per day; 113 pennies per
hour, or 28 cents every IS min
utes of each school year.