Officer Rocket being cute, and not doing much else.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
After having to be cancelled last year because of COVID-19, on Sunday, the Needham Harvest Fair returned to Town Hall and its surrounding streets. But while perennial favorites like the Louise Condon’s pumpkins and the fire truck were there, the event did look a bit different from year’s past.
Operations Director Katherine Herer of the Charles River Regional Chamber, which was formerly known as the Newton-Needham Regiona Chamber until it expanded to include Wellesley and Watertown, explained that while it seemed like the number of patrons was about the same, to space people out better, they had to cut the number of booths by about twenty five percent.
“We limited the exhibitors a little bit this year to space out the booths. Typically we have over one hundred businesses come out, but this year it’s about 75. So, it’s a little bit lighter but there’s been people here all day.”
On top of the aforementioned pumpkins and the fire truck, Herer explained the other huge draws were police dog Officer Rocket and the retailers that haven’t been to the harvest before.
“Louise Condon has pumpkins ever year, so that’s not new but it’s definitely a big draw. The fire truck is another big one. But people have been coming to [Officer] Rocket the police dog, that’s a huge hit. What we really try to prioritize is all the community organizations like the nonprofits and any downtown retailers that wanted to come. So, many of our retailers have come out to the fair, and they may not have been here in the past.”
But lest you think that Officer Rocket was on hand to perform some kind of display of skills - like sniffing out something or bringing down a pseudo-perpetrator - Herer explained he wasn’t doing anything like that.
“No, he’s just really cute.”
But with COVID forcing so many businesses to close, while the booths made it seem like all was good in Needham, the question arose as to how the Chamber is doing. According to Herer, while they’ve dealt with some issues, the businesses have done a good job coming together to support one another.
“There’s definitely been some, but one of the things we’ve been doing since the start of the pandemic is we have a restaurant group that meets every other week and they support each other. We’ve been sending out newsletters trying to hook people up with resources to help them stay in business. Inevitably it’s been a tough time, but I think we’ve seen a lot of people come together, too.”
