Lee — Smiles were on the menu at the September 19 Taste of Lee celebration, and those grins, along with laughter, continued into the Founders Day Weekend that followed. The Lee Chamber of Commerce sponsored the three-day event.
For Lenox Dale’s Nora-Lise Attoumo, the program was extra special as she enjoyed her seventh birthday on Lee’s Main Street, immersed in delicious food bites, Irish dancing, live music, fireworks, and, most importantly, friends. “We come every year,” Jessica Attoumo said of her daughter who attends school in town. “We come and get the fried dough every year too.”
Tyrene Campbell of Chatham, N.Y., gathered with Canaan, N.Y.’s Nikki Durlack and Becket’s Andrea Artioli to listen to the sounds of Happy Together, who were featured as musical guests of Taste of Lee. The three women work together in Lee and Durlack said she was thrilled to attend the event as it had been on her radar for years.
“I love it,” Durlack said of the program. “It’s a really great setup and lots of stuff to see and look at and eat.”
Campbell noted the “great representation between diversity of people,” and Artioli found the music “fantastic.”
Robert Newton opened his wallet at an enticing dragon figurine vendor booth, prompted by his grandsons, namesake eight-year-old Robert Newton and six-year-old Nicholas Newton. Chuckling, the native Lee resident said “he had no choice.”
“I think [Founders Weekend] is very important,” Newton said. “You don’t see many towns in the Berkshires doing this. We look forward to it.”
Local Elly Lashoones, proprietor of Dream Away Travel by Elly, greeted visitors to the Friday evening event. An independent agent of The Cruise Brothers Inc., the travel advisor was trying to get her new home-based cruise travel business recognized. “You don’t find a lot of business from travel agents anymore,” she said. “Most travel agents work from home. Really, the only way to get your name out there is at events like this or through social media.”
With a grandmother who was a lifetime resident of the town, Lashoones “has very strong ties to Lee” and, in the past, has been a part of the festivities as an attendee. Now she is on the other side of things. “It feels good to get the opportunity to meet a lot more people here in Lee and offer my [free] services to them,” she said.
Lee’s Richard Rockefeller had his hands full during the Friday program, pushing young sons Nathan and Wesley in their double stroller. The lifelong resident said he comes to the celebration every year, now taking the next generation with him. As a dad, it makes him “very, very happy.”
Stockbridge mom Megan Porter and her 11-year-old daughter Phoebe Porter scarfed down pizza from Mary’s Kitchen. Phoebe Porter attends school in town, and for the youngster, the event is “a big social thing,” Megan Porter said. But their meal did not end there as the pair was headed to the fried Oreos booth next.
Parent Jennifer Dort led the St. Mary’s School booth, with all the evening’s monies going toward educational field trips. “Every single classroom is going to get the opportunity to go and explore their environment and do outside-the-school learning,” she said.
It was Dort’s third year serving fried foods to hungry patrons, “a staple of the Taste of Lee,” with workers earning “all the fried dough you want to eat” as an incentive, she said. This year, fried Oreos were the “hot” item, no pun intended.
For Dort, the best aspect of the program “is seeing the entire community come out.” “We have the families from the school that are coming, stopping in to say, ‘hello,’” she said. “We have alumna that have graduated and recognize that their parents worked here years before. We have generations helping us out … We’re so blessed to have everyone in this great community.”
Revelers returned on Saturday to participate in the Wildcat Main Street Mile Race, Founders Hometown Parade, and Family Fun Day at the Lee Athletic Field, with the latter sponsored by the Lee Youth Commission as well as the local Chamber of Commerce.
The program saw performances by 413 Cheer and Gymnastics Unlimited, magic by Bowey the Magic Clown, music by Terry A La Berry & Friends, circus skills by Berkcirque, a skate-park competition and Ninja Agility Challenge from Neighborhood Ninjas, in addition to an inflatable obstacle course and bounce house.
On Sunday, the program “went to the dogs” as pet boarding/daycare facility Hearth & Hound sponsored the inaugural dog parade at the park. It was, no doubt, a howling success!
