McKeesport church to hold end-of-summer barbecue

It will take place Saturday afternoon at Mt. Vernon Community Presbyterian Church on Greenock Buena Vista Road.

The end of summer is here, and a McKeesport church is saying goodbye to the season with a barbecue cook-off.

Mt. Vernon Community Presbyterian Church will host its third annual end-ofsummer barbecue from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

The church, located at 2200 Greenock Buena Vista Road, will have ribs, chicken, pulled pork, haluski, macaroni and cheese and more. There will also be music, games for the kids, a bake sale, baskets, raffles and options for takeout.

Rev. Matthew Fricker, the pastor of the church, will face off with Dustin Younge in a barbecue challenge to see who is better at making food. Joanie Keller, a fellowship group member, said it is “always a battle between the two of them.”

Keller said Fricker is a “go-getter” pastor who has been trying to upgrade the church, including painting the walls and replacing the windows.

“He has revitalized our church and gotten people more involved and everything. We are a faith-based group of people always trying to recruit more people in,” she said. “The barbecue is for a fundraiser or benefit to do more renovations in the church — trying to update everything that we’re doing.”

The barbecue is run by the church’s fellowship group, but several other groups in the church will participate in activities.

“We run a lot of things,” Keller said. “We had a strawberry festival earlier in the summer, and we try to do different things around the year to bring the community to get involved and to see what we do for our community.”

The deacons at the church are going to do basket raffles, with the proceeds going to the people in need they try to help.

A 50/50 raffle run by the church’s youth group will benefit the funds they lost from going on a mission trip.

“A women’s group with the church will also be donating desserts,” Keller said. “We have a really big dessert tent there. All kinds of desserts. The women will be making a lot of the desserts for there for people to purchase.”

Keller encourages the public to attend the event with their family and friends and to call the church’s office at 412-751-8479 with any questions before the event.

“It’s always been a lot of fun. We’ve had a great crowd and we just enjoy doing it,” Keller said. “I like the food especially. I think it’s just getting together with everybody. Just being together as a community is great and I look forward to that. See people you haven’t seen in awhile. The companionship is great.”