When Valentine’s Day comes around each year, Lisa Gerber of Oswego says there’s no such thing as having too much chocolate to go around.
“I’ve come to this event before and I know it’s an effort to support non-profits every year, but we love chocolate,” Gerber said as she walked along Main Street in Oswego on Saturday morning with friends during the eighth annual Chocolate Walk for Charity. “I love the dark chocolate and then it’s also a family event too. There are over 20 spots, I think, and we’re going to hit them all. We’re not sharing. We’re each getting our own.”
The Oswego Downtown Association, in conjunction with the Oswego Chamber of Commerce, organized the Chocolate Walk. The event is used to raise money for the Chamber of Commerce, which annually gives 50% of the proceeds raised from ticket sales to a local charity.
Angie Hibben, president and CEO of the Oswego Chamber of Commerce, said the event helps “bring awareness to the downtown and lets people know we have an amazing place with lots of unique individual stores.”
“The other purpose of the Chocolate Walk is we give a portion of the proceeds to a local charity every year,” she said. “This year, we’re helping Awesome Life Academy.”
Hibben said the non-profit group “creates programs and services for adult individuals with special needs including recreation, fitness, wellness and employment.”
“Donations raised range from $1,500 to $2,000 each year because we try to keep the cost low for those attending but still giving some back to the charity,” she said.
A total of about 25 merchants signed up to be part of the Chocolate Walk this year, and sales of tickets were limited to 250 people.
“We limit this to 250 people and we need to keep track of the number of participants so stores know how many chocolates to have,” Hibben said. “With a ticket, people get a map with all the participating businesses and an iridescent reusable bag with the Chocolate Walk logo on it. We try to give people something they can use again.”
Hibben said chocolate options during the event would come “from every direction including chocolate-covered pretzels to chocolate cake balls and homemade candy.”
“There has also been hot chocolate, a chocolate fountain in the past and a huge chocolate cupcake,” she said before the event. “Every type of chocolate cookie you can imagine as well as brownies. This year at 113 Main, the restaurant and bar is offering a chocolate martini and at the winery there will be chocolate wine that people will be sampling. We always have this the week before Valentine’s Day and people bring their wives or husbands down for a nice day.”
Chris Pawlak of Oswego took part in the Chocolate Walk on Saturday.
“I know today is pretty mild, but for me, it doesn’t matter,” Pawlak said. “Even if it’s bad, I’m here.”
Karen Pirc of Oswego said she has come to every one of the Chocolate Walks, noting that “I love hanging out with my daughter.”
“I come every year and haven’t missed one,” she said. “This is a fun event for us. I like visiting the downtown shops and we always find unique things here and always buy a couple of things. As far as the chocolate, we usually hit all of the stops unless one of them is far away. Otherwise, we hit them all.”
Kate Pirc, 23, said that “some of the things they give away aren’t chocolate” during the event.
“We got soap one year in the shape of chocolate – like a cupcake thing,” she said.
The Pircs had just come from Imagination Print and Design where owner Kelley Rice said she “was giving away Willy Wonka cards with enameled pins and some rainbow chocolates on it.”
“We’ve been in this since 2019, and we like working with the Chamber and the Downtown Association and it gets people downtown and makes them aware of all the shops we have here and it’s an amazing cause,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
