Wakeman Town Farm hosted their annual family Beer Garden event on Sunday Oct. 15 from 12-4 p.m., where a wide variety of vendors, families and animals came together for a memorable autumn afternoon filled with food, drinks, crafts and fall activities.
Wakeman Town Farm is always looking to get people in the community involved and bring everyone together. This includes Staples students who were eager to volunteer for this event. The Service League of Girls (SLOGS) came to help out by serving pizzas, helping with crafts and cleaning up after the event.
Tony Pizza Napolitano served the main food for the day, which consisted of brick oven pizzas that were made right in front of customers. Tony made over 100 pizzas for the guests, while the SLOGS served and delivered the food to the families. These pizzas were more than just something good to eat, the boxes that held the pizzas would be recycled and used for compost which would be mixed with wood chips to create a path that would lead up to the farm.
“It was really fun serving the pizzas, and I thought it was really cool to hear how even a pizza box could help the community,” Elle Feinleib ’25 said. “I think it’s really nice to hear that this event was more than just a gathering, but something that could actually benefit the farm too.”
Vendors of all kinds attended the family Beer Garden event. This included The Holistic LMT, a licensed massage therapy and wellness service where adults were able to receive messages in exchange for a couple tickets which they received instead of cash for the event. As well as real estate company KMS Team at Compass who provided cider donuts and apple cider beverages for guests to enjoy.
However, lots of the yummy desserts and tasty frosted treats came from Saugatuck Sweets, which included flavors like oreo bomb, cookie monster, and caramel apple which guests could add a variety of toppings to. This would not be the family beer garden event without beer, which was sponsored by companies including Greens Farms Spirits and 5th State Distillery. Adults 21 and over were allowed to try a variety of spirits for free.
Keeping kids entertained for a long period of time can be a challenge, but that wasn’t a problem. Kids of all ages enjoyed arts and crafts, bubbles, and games. Children were able to create pumpkin mummies using mini pumpkins, markers, glitter and toilet paper to create a scary mummy effect, as well as receive face paint of all kinds. Kids were also able to create flower crowns, which were sponsored by LaurelRock. Children eagerly walked around to craft tables and played games like cornhole and tag with their friends, soaking up a picture perfect fall day.
Of course Wakeman Town Farm is known for their plethora of animals, which children were also able to meet. Children were able to get photos with mini therapy ponies, as well as feed chickens and ducks and observe llamas and goats. These goats were brought around the event on leashes for people to take pictures of and hangout with. These goats even hung out with Hitch + Giddyup, one of the two bands that played at the event, as they enjoyed the live music too.
Parents, kids, babies, grandparents and teenagers all seemed to enjoy this event and the small town feeling that it gave off.
“It kind of felt like I was in Gilmore Girls,” Charlotte Walsh ’25 said. “It was really cute and everyone looked like they were having so much fun.”
