Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Aiden Lohrmann, 5, (from left) Laurie Beche, 4, and Lily Beche, 4, eat strawberry shortcake Friday at the Community School's 29th annual Strawberry Festival. The festival, which is a fundraiser for the school, continues today in downtown Roanoke's Elmwood Park.

An estimated 7,200 pints of berries will be used in the smoothies, shortcakes and other treats sold at the festival.

Remington, a coonhound, licks the cream from the bottom of Megan James' strawberry shortcake on Friday.

Some 12,840 shortcakes. 7,200 pints of strawberries. 2,500 volunteer hours.

That's the story of the 29th Strawberry Festival and Community School fundraiser continuing today at Elmwood Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Many of the ingredients and all of the labor is donated, school development and marketing director Carissa South said.

When the school started the festival 1981, it was so small they could purchase the strawberries at Kroger, South said. Now the group buys in bulk from a national distributor.

Parents, students and alumni gather in the days leading up to the event to mix and bake the cakes and clean and cut the strawberries.

Businesses such as Wachovia and Alejandro's Mexican Grill also provide donations and volunteers to help serve the food.

Profit from the event "helps us keep our tuition low," South said. "And it also helps with the financial aid program."

Founded in 1971, the Community School is a private, nonprofit institution that serves about 152 students aged 3 to 14. The school emphasizes cooperative learning, Spanish language and service learning education.

Depending on the weather, South said organizers expect about 30,000 people to pass through the festival, which is running concurrently with the Virginia State Championship Chili Cook Off. The cook-off, which is a fundraiser for Roanoke's Greenvale School, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today in the downtown market area.

By lunchtime Friday, more than 20 volunteers worked to assemble the famed shortcakes for a crowd of mostly office workers on lunch break. At other stands, volunteers sold strawberry smoothies and whole berries dipped in chocolate.

On Friday, Jennifer O'Neal made her first trip to the festival since starting work two years ago at Fields Law Office downtown. She was joined by her employer, Pat Fields.

"I'm not supposed to be eating this," O'Neal said. "But as the song says, 'Ain't no stopping me now.' "

"My son went to Community School years ago, so I feel a part of all this," Fields said.

Virginia Hale, who has lived in Roanoke for 45 years, picked Friday for her first trip to the festival, too. She brought her grandson, John David Cooley, as part of his fifth birthday celebration.

But the birthday boy wasn't crazy about the shortcakes.

"He didn't like the biscuit part," Hale said.

He dived right into the chocolate-covered strawberries, however.

Before leaving, Hale tried to mop chocolate off the boy's face and hands. But there was little hope for his white polo shirt.

John David didn't have much to say about the shortcakes or the festival, preferring instead to scrape chocolate off the empty container and pop it into his mouth.

But he did stop eating long enough to relay a rapid-fire list of his preferred birthday gifts, including a bicycle.