The Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest is currently accepting candidate applications for the 2026-2027
Strawberry Fest Ambassador Scholarship Program, which is open to youth ages 8–21 from all surrounding communities.
Lori Olsen, president of the Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest, offers background about Strawberry Fest.
“It goes back to 1983 or 84 timeframe, that’s when strawberry fields were prevalent in Cottage Grove. So, Strawberry Fest is planned by an all-volunteer committee, and our mission is to bring the community together at events, residents, businesses, city government and all nonprofit orgs in and outside of our community to help celebrate our festivals once a year.”
There is a candidate informational meeting on March 25th at 6:00 pm at Carbone’s, located at 7155 Jorgensen Lane S, Cottage Grove. Strawberry Fest is more than just attending summer parades. Olsen explains the scholarship and volunteer opportunities for Strawberry Fest ambassadors.
“Every year we go through what we consider our invest in our scholarship program. We have candidates that decide that they want to be part of this organization. There is a small judging event that happens during this time, anywhere from typically to seven people are selected. It is open to young people, anywhere from the age of 8 to 21. In the category that we have 17 and older at the end of their what we consider their reign, their yearly commitment. They do receive a $1,500 college scholarship. There’s many things that this organization does for some of the younger kids that have always enjoyed this program. It gives them volunteer hours. It also gives them a lot of different things to put on their resume, as far as all the different communities that we go to and all the different events that we volunteer at—it can be medical benefits, it can be friends in the food shelves, it can be veterans events that we’ve been to, beyond the Yellow Ribbon holiday train. I mean, we’ve done a lot of things across Minneapolis, Toys for Tots and other organizations like that. So, it is a very good organization, and at the end of the day, they do get that college scholarship.”
This organization, Strawberry Fest, benefits residents in Cottage Grove and the surrounding area. Olsen shares how and addresses a couple of misconceptions.
“It’s not just a Cottage Grove, you know, even though Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest resides in Cottage Grove, we are vast when we, you know, go through and get volunteers and things like that for not just Strawberry Fest, but the ambassador program. So pretty much saying that you don’t need to live in Cottage Grove to be part of this. And I think that there’s probably two things that get kind of mislabeled. One, you don’t have to be in Cottage Grove to participate in this program. Number two, it’s not a beauty contest. We consider it a scholarship program, not necessarily where some people might say, well, it’s the royalty group, and they wear crowns and dresses and things like that, but it’s much more than just that. Right now, we have publicized it, not just Hastings on their Facebook, but Cottage Grove, Newport, St Paul Park, Woodbury, Prescott and South St Paul. So, we’re trying just to accumulate anybody that would be interested in receiving a scholarship. and participate in the program.”
For more information about the March 25 informational meeting or the Cottage Grove Strawberry Fest organization, visit www.cottagegrovestrawberryfest.com.