or a sweet time, call 317-477-4188 and find out more about enjoying chocolate while also helping a local reading tutor program.
That’s the number for Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce, where you can find more information about the Sixth Annual Greenfield Walk for Chocolate. The walk starts at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce at One Courthouse Plaza.
Val Angle, marketing coordinator for the chamber, has an apt description for the event.
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“It’s a scavenger hunt for chocolate,” Angle said.
The purpose of the event is two-fold, Angle explains: to get people through the doors of downtown businesses and as a fundraiser for ReadUP, a United Way program that supports volunteer one-on-one tutors for third-graders who are struggling to read at grade level.
The Walk for Chocolate starts at the Chamber. Participants are given swag bags with a well-marked map of the downtown area charting a course to the participating businesses. The bag also includes information about the businesses as well as some recipes for some of the chocolate confections.
Each participant gets a ticket marked with numbers for each of the businesses. As chocolate lovers follow the route from chocolate treat to chocolate treat, they get their cards punched at each business and can turn them back in to the Chamber at the end of the walk for raffle prizes.
Approximately 20 downtown area businesses will be participating, including the Vintage Vault, the Red Banana, the Riley Home, the Hey Café and Highsmith Guns.
Angle said attendance for this annual event has remained steady.
“We sell around 200 tickets,” Angle said. “It’s important for the businesses to know how many to expect so they can plan to have enough chocolate on hand.”
An obvious stop on the Greenfield Walk for Chocolate is Greenfield Chocolates, 15 W. Main St., which is actually a co-workspace shared by two Indiana Artisan businesses, J. Evelyn Confections, owned by Jayne Hoadley, and Litterally Divine Chocolates, owned by Suzanne Litteral. Each focuses on a different kind of confection: Hoadley specializes in traditional candies using chocolates from around the world, while Litteral’s claim to fame is her organic and vegan chocolates.
A visit to Greenfield Chocolates on the Walk for Chocolate will earn visitors two treats: fudge from Literally Divine and caramel and toffee from J. Evelyn Confections.
Hoadley said she loves the Walk for Chocolate.
“It’s so much great exposure,” Hoadley said. “A very fun way of people discovering what is in downtown Greenfield.”
Chris Vetters, Greenfield, has attended the Walk for Chocolate with her daughter Maddie and her grandchildren the past couple of years.
“We took the kids, but it was really for us,” Vetters said. “We discovered businesses that we didn’t know were there.”
Vetters admits to taking most of her chocolate home in the swag bag.
“Most everything came wrapped so we could do that,” Vetters said.
One of the treasures Vetters discovered on the Walk for Chocolate was the Dance East Ballet Studio, where Vetters’ granddaughter now takes lessons. Another was BBQ’N Fools, which gave out peppered chocolate.
Grant Ford, owner of BBQ’N Fools, 20 W. South St., has participated in the Walk for Chocolate as a business for the last two years. Last year, he and his wife, Jeni, made two types of confections, one with chili pepper and the other with cayenne pepper.
“We ran out of the hottest one first,” Ford said. “We’ll have to make more this year.”
The Walk for Chocolate was good for him as a business. His white BBQ’N Fool food truck is often seen at other events.
“A lot of people didn’t know we had a physical location, and now they do,” Ford said.
It’s not too late to get tickets. They can be purchased for $15 in advance at the Chamber at One Courthouse Plaza or for $20 the day of the event. The event is rain or shine.
