Large crowd enjoys fun, food and music at Saints Joachim and Anne Catholic Parish festival

The celebration at Saints Joachim and Anne Parish will continue today and Saturday.

The Saints Joachim and Anne Parish Festival drew a large crowd on its opening night Thursday, and its organizers are excited to expect even more today and tomorrow.

The festival will continue tonight and Saturday at St. Eugene Church Grounds at 3210 Liberty Way in Liberty Borough. There are a variety of food booths, a bingo tent, bake sale, flea market, specialty raffle baskets and various rides for kids.

Festival Chairperson Cathy Esack said preparations for the annual threeday festival began in March.

“This is the biggest event of the summer in our area, and actually, we’re probably one of the largest festivals in the Mon Valley,” Esack said. “It’s a year-long preparation. Next year’s festival has already started with prepping, and the dates are and equipment are reserved.”

It was clear last night based on the long lines, that the food booths are the festival’s main attraction.

From walking tacos to homemade pierogies and haluski, the festival food menu included something for everyone. There is also a booth with a variety of pastries.

Darla Losteter, who is in charge of the festival food, said that she’s tried adding a variety of items to their menu since she took charge. The festival has around 20 different items to pick from.

“It’s all good, it’s prepared with love, we take a lot of time in making sure that it’s perfect,” Losteter said. “To get the community together, I think that’s important. Sit down and have a meal together, laugh together, and walk together.”

Although the food options are significant, there are many other things to check out. An unexpected gem atthe festival is the flea market in the basement of the St. Eugene Campus church.

The flea market is divided into several sections, which included clothes, books, movie DVDs, holiday ornaments, lamps, kitchenware, furniture, and more. According to Esack, the flea market used to be a smaller event, but now it’s grown into a major portion of the festival.

Outside, visitors will find multiple game booths, which included bingo, roller ball, wiffle toss, and a lot more. In the game area, they also had a booth for children’s fingerprinting hosted by the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department.

Esack said that one of the newer attractions of the festival is the Bounce House Bonanza, which includes several games and bounce houses for kids.

The festival also features craft baskets, specialty baskets, and other items to be raffled off each day of the event. According to Donna Ruhl and Lisa Sinay, who help organize the baskets, they raffle off 60 baskets each day of the festival.

“We work on these pretty much year-round,” Ruhl said. “We take collections and build baskets year-round. We start back full-time, like probably in March, every Wednesday since March.”

They raffle off items like iPads, TVs, Christmas trees, and even a treadmill during the festival. Ruhl and Sinay said that a majority of the items are donations from parishioners for the festival.

According to Esack, the festival has a lot of moving parts, and this year, they have over 100 volunteers. Anita Niecgorski, the festival volunteer coordinator and games facilitator, said she has been helping with the festival for eight years, but this was her third year working with the volunteers.

“I think that it’s not just one person that is responsible for everything, everybody, every different entity has its own group, and then all of the groups work together, and it just makes everything run so smooth, and it’s just a lot of fun,” Niecgorski said. “And we enjoy it. We look forward to it every year.”

This is the second year of being involved with the festival for the Rev. Thomas Burke, but he says it’s been working like a well-oiled machine.

“I would say my favorite part is that the people are having fun,” Burke said. “The little kid in the moon bounce, or a senior citizen having a nice hot meal, or somebody finding a treasure in the flea market, or winning one of our wonderful baskets. It’s for all ages, and that’s what’s for me, as the pastor, it’s about building community.”

Anita Janicki and Rita Bruno were together at the festival and said that they’ve been visiting the festival for several years. For Bruno, the festival was significant, especially for community bonding.

“We all get together and we show love for each other and that we care about everybody, and we want this to be successful because we love the church,” Bruno said.

Although Bruno and Janicki were enjoying the festival, Janicki’s daughter, Marissa Janicki, was hosting a booth for UPMC’s Community Health Worker Program. Marissa Janicki and Maegyn Trudics were giving out information about their program and the services they provide.

“It’s a grant-funded program, so it’s free to anybody,” Trudics said. “They don’t need to have insurance, they don’t need to pay us or anything, and we help them with things like housing, applications, Medicaid, food stamps, help finding doctors, or really anything they need.”

They won’t have a booth for the next days of the festival, but Marissa can be reached at 412-286-8854 and Trudics at 412-554-5680.

Today, the festival food booth will open at 5 p.m., and then games, music, and the flea market will begin at 6 p.m. and will continue until 11 p.m. On Saturday, there will be a 4 p.m. outdoor Mass, and then everything else will open at 5 p.m. and continue until 11 p.m.

The festival takes place at the St. Eugene Campus on 3210 Liberty Way in Liberty Borough. For more information, visit the parish website at https://www.joachimandannediopitt. org/