Ready your eye patch! ‘Berried Treasure’ is theme for fest

• 'Berried Treasure'

Lori Olsen designed the winning logo for this year's Strawberry Fest.

Talk about it

“Berried Treasure” was chosen last week as this year’s theme for Cottage Grove’s annual summertime celebration, announced planning committee president Justin Olsen. The logo features a pirate caricature and honors the event’s 25th anniversary.

Cottage Grove’s Lori Olsen — no relation to the committee president — created the theme, chosen as part of the Strawberry Fest Logo Contest.

The logo is “something that’s been in my head for a while,” Lori Olsen said. “I’d say for the last year.”

The pirate-themed logo was one of 15 submissions in the contest. The logo competition began last year — the 2008 winner was “Gettin’ Groovy in the Grove” — and is growing in popularity, said Justin Olsen, who is also a city council member.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “We get really creative submissions. Out of 15 submissions, none were similar.”

Strawberry Fest Committee members reviewed the 15 submissions and selected the logo at their Feb. 23 meeting. The submissions were displayed anonymously, so the judges did not know who submitted which logo.

Winner invited to be grand marshal

The winner of the fledgling contest is invited to serve as grand marshal for the Strawberry Fest Parade, running from the corner of 80th Street and Jamaica Avenue to Kingston Park, the center of the weekend’s events.

Lori Olsen isn’t sure she’ll be able to lead the parade down Jamaica Avenue. But she’s OK with that, happy just to have contributed to Strawberry Fest’s silver anniversary.

“My goal,” she said, “was never personally to be grand marshal.”

Lori Olsen’s winning design will be part of a growing event. New to this year’s Strawberry Fest is a top chef competition, craft show, three-on-three basketball tournament, coed softball tournament and softball homerun derby.

The 2009 Strawberry Fest is June 19-21.

Tags: cottage grove, strawberry fest, summer, festival