Meet the guy who decided this year’s Strawberry Fest theme

Matt Watkins serves as this year’s festival chairman.

Matt Watkins and family have made the Troy Strawberry Festival a family affair.

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They most certainly aren’t alone when it comes to families enjoying a festival. For the Watkins family, though, it has meant years of behind the scenes involvement and, in 2017, Matt serving as the festival’s general chairman.

The annual festival runs Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4, in downtown Troy and on the Great Miami River levee with more local-oriented activities such as a children’s parade and Big Wheel races on Friday, June 2, from 6-9 p.m. near the Troy Memorial Stadium.

A Troy native who works as the IT director for Miami County, Watkins said he was stunned when festival leaders approached him a couple of years ago about serving as 2017 chairman.

When they popped the question, wife Lynn and their four children showed up, as usual, to support. The children are Jaclyn, who just completed her junior year at Troy High School; Colleen, who completed her freshman year; Connor, who completed seventh grade; and Ronan, who completed fifth grade.

Matt Watkins has volunteered for the festival since 2000 beginning with the former duck races and continuing with everything from signs to logistics to bed races, pie eating and painting strawberries on city streets in the days leading to the festival. The family helps with his tasks including a couple of the children serving as festival berry mascots.

The chairman selects the festival theme, so Watkins combined two loves — movies and his wife Lynn, with whom he celebrates a 25th wedding anniversary this year — for “Silver Screen Berries.”

“She has always been there for me whenever I volunteer,” Watkins said of recognizing his wife and their marriage. As for the movies, he said, “Every day of your life is just another scene in your personal movie. People need to know they are important, and they are stars. They have worth and people are interested in what they do.”

The festival will feature traditional activities including the strawberry pie eating contest, entertainment, food booths by dozens of local groups and organizations, arts and crafts booths, strawberry doughnuts and a variety of entertainment including a Friday night show featuring Morgan Alexander.

Festival organizers urge visitors to park in designated areas and ride shuttle buses to the festival site. For more details on this year’s festival, visit gostrawberries.com.

Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com.


How to go

What: 41st Troy Strawberry Festival

Where: Downtown and river levee

When: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 3, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 4. (Related events will be held from 6-9 p.m. Friday, June 2.)

Admission: Free

More info: www.gostrawberries.com

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