Helen Xia, CHS Student Writer As autumn arrived with lowering temperatures, beautiful crisp weather beckoned our visits to the numerous festivals held amid this breezy season! Thurmont’s Catoctin Colorfest, Sabillasville’s Mountain Fest, Rocky Ridge’s Ridgefest, Fort Ritchie’s Fall Fest, and Catoctin Furnace’s Fallfest, are only a handful of the invigorating events that filled our festival…

Ai (Sam) Fing, Owner of Simply Asia, wanted to give back to the community that welcomed him over eight years ago. His idea was to run a lunch special for $10.00 an entree and to provide all of the profits to the Thurmont Food Bank. With the help of two of Thurmont’s biggest supporters, Carol…

Theresa Pryor The mountain may not have been showing her bountiful fall petticoats October 12 and 13, but Thurmont’s annual Catoctin Colorfest event was an artist’s palette of colors and hues. I was born here in this beautiful part of the country and recently moved back home to Thurmont, so this was my first Colorfest.…

Catoctin Colorfest, Inc. held its annual banquet in November at Simply Asia in Thurmont. This yearly meeting serves as a wrap-up for the Colorfest annual festival. The weather for the festival was not optimum this year, with cold temperatures on Sunday, some rain, and plenty of mud. Crowds still turned out in large numbers to…

by Valerie Nusbaum This column is for the November issue, so it should be about Thanksgiving and/or being grateful for what we have. In truth, I’m writing this in early October and Thanksgiving is just a blip on my radar at this point. I’m in the middle of getting things ready for Randy’s and my…

Grace Eyler Friday, October 13, 2017, marked the beginning of the 54th Catoctin Colorfest weekend in Thurmont. On this morning, the streets were busy with locals snagging a great deal at the yard sales that were set up all over town. The town had started to bustle. Some locals were preparing for the busy weekend…

Local Artist Yemi Fagbohn announced in spring 2017 that he would be completing the mural project on Main Street, on the former electric building, after the Thurmont Commissioners approved the project to proceed. The current Main Street murals depict Thurmont’s historical buildings, natural resources, and trolley history, which were completed in collaboration with the Thurmont…

‘Tis the Season by Valerie Nusbaum It’s September as I’m writing this column. The kids have gone back to school, and summer is pretty much over. I can hardly wrap my mind around those facts. Thanksgiving is only two months away, Christmas is closer than I care to imagine, and Halloween is almost upon us.…

One weekend, every year, Thurmont is taken over by crafters, vendors, visitors, and shoppers during the Catoctin Colorfest. The show promotes “artisans and craftsman who are hard-working individuals putting their hearts and souls into their craft.” While it seems like a temporary small-town take-over, it is nice to know that the show generates a significant…

Anita DiGregory As in year’s past, the metamorphosis began slowly early in the week. With steady deliveries of port-o-potties, new tents being constructed, and signs going up around town, the temporary makeover was gradually taking shape. By the morning of October 8, 2016, the conversion was complete.  Thurmont’s quaint and quiet Community Park, and surrounding…

James Rada, Jr. The crowds have gone now, Colorfest 2015 is over, and life in Thurmont is back to normal. Many local non-profit organizations got their annual boost of funding from the estimated 125,000 people that crowded into Thurmont for the event that was held during the second weekend of October. Although Colorfest started out…

James Rada, Jr. The incessant rain on Saturday morning, October 11, 2014, gave way to a cloudy day in the afternoon, transitioning into a sunny, more pleasant day on Sunday for the 51st Annual Colorfest weekend in Thurmont. The crowds picked up as people turned out for unusual food like Southern-fried Snickers and one-of-a-kind gifts…