Teen Recruits Students to Work Strawberry Festivals

When Danny Dembner heard that the elementary schools' Strawberry Festivals were in jeopardy because of the teacher negotiations and the teachers working to the rule of their contract, he wanted to do something.

“I remember always loving the Strawberry Festival when I was in grade school,” said the Millburn High School junior and fencer who took it upon himself to organize other high school students to work all the elementary school Strawberry Festivals so they could still take place. “I wanted all the kids to have fun and have those memories, too.”

In all, he got about 20 or so students to volunteer at the various strawberry festivals, with about nine or 10 showing up to work at this week’s Hartshorn Festival, even though the rain date fell on the day of their High School band concert.

So far, he’s worked at the Deerfield and the Hartshorn festival and, he said, has had a great time.

“It was really fun going back to Deerfield, where I went to school,” he said.

Robin Finkelstein, the PTO president for Hartshorn, said Dembner saved the day when it looked like the teachers weren’t going to be able to make it, then said he would still volunteer even though the teachers had reached a settlement with the BOE.

That was a good thing, too, Finkelstein said, because with the festival being postponed because of rain, a lot of parents could no longer volunteer.

Danny’s efforts to organize students to make sure younger kids had what he had growing up impressed Finkelstein.

“In this day and age when kids are self-centered and only worrying about what can I get, Danny has showed all of us that not all are like that,” she said. “He has gone above and beyond to make sure that all the elementary students of this district have the best Strawberry Festival ever!”