Cropwell Friends Meeting attended the popular “Marlton Day” event in town for the first time this Sunday, letting the town know we exist and are growing. Only a few years ago Cropwell Meeting had dwindled down to two regularly attending members. Through concerted effort and the help of Friends in nearby meeting, it has grown in size (today’s worship, for example, had thirteen people, pretty typical for us these days).
Marlton Day is sponsored by the Marlton Business Association and takes place every June on Main Street, just down the road from the Cropwell Meetinghouse (a modern highway interchange blocks the direct route). It is one of two annual festivals in the town and features entertainment, local businesses, and area nonprofits.
To prepare, we purchased a canopy tent (the Crown Shades 10×10 foot pop-up) and had a tablecloth made up that said “CROPWELL QUAKER MEETING” with our web address below and peace doves on the side. We made a poster of some Quaker values (though not in the SPICES order). To bring in passersby, we had a tray full of bags of fish crackers and pretzels, and beside it had a tray full of magnets with uplifting spiritual messages.
For literature we had stacks of newly-purchased pamphlets from Quakerbooks of FGC. Additionally, we recently discovered a whole box full of outdated hardback copies of Philadelphia Faith and Practice and offered them to anyone who seemed interested. We had a sign-up list for emails and did get a few. (The PYM blog has a recent article all about the nuts and bolts of tabling of an event like this.)
Marlton Day was hot but a lot of fun. There was a band from School of Rock Cherry Hill playing nearby. Alice Paul was a famous South Jersey women’s rights activist and the Alice Paul Institute had a table nearby (we visited each other a bunch of times). We also spent some time with the folks tabling for the Evesham Historical Society, which naturally has a lot of Quaker crossover.
We’re looking forward to repeat our tabling at the Evesham Township Harvest Fest in September and also plan to host a second Truck or Treat in October.
