Rostraver welcomes holidays with Christmas celebration

Hundreds of area residents attended the event at the John DiVirgilio Sports Complex.

At Sunday’s celebration, from left, are Rostraver police Officer Ben Bamford, Magisterial District Judge Wayne Vlasic, police Chief Scott Sokol and Officer Matt Scheiber. Ladimir Garcia / Mon Valley Independent

The smell of hot chocolate and the sounds of carolers filled the air Sunday during the annual Rostraver Christmas celebration.

Hundreds of local residents gathered at the John DiVirgilio Sports Complex. By the time the event started, a long line of families had already formed, hoping to meet Santa Claus.

Rostraver Commissioner Gary Beck and police Chief Scott Sokol said the township always looks forward to the Christmas event.

“We’ve got treats for the kids, we’ve got free hot dogs, snacks and refreshments for everybody in attendance,” Sokol said. “We have Santa Claus, we have the Grinch. We got all our first responders here. It’s a great night. The weather’s held out.

“We’ve been doing this dating back to when I first started. Before I started, it started down by the Belle Vernon post office, and then as it grew bigger, we brought it out here to the recreation complex. So it’s been going on well before, past 30 years, I’d say.”

Beck and Township Manager Jeffrey Keffer were both cooking up free hot dogs, sandwiches and nachos in the concession stand for the event. Beck said it takes a lot of people to put the event together every year.

“This is all for the community, for the families. It’s all great. It’s all recreation,” Beck said.

Sokol reiterated Beck’s message, stating that their goal is to form strong relationships with the children in the township.

During the celebration, Sokol was in charge of ensuring Santa arrived on time. Eventually, Santa appeared in a Rostraver Township Fire Department fire truck, with the Grinch also making an appearance in a Rostraver police car.

Tom Simon, owner of Howard Hanna Simon Real Estate, hosted a craft area where families could make scratch-off ornaments for their Christmas trees. Simon said he and some of his staff typically help out at the celebration every year.

“For the last several years, we’ve been here,” Simon said. “We set up a table and we always do the scratch-off Christmas ornaments because kids love it.”

Casey Giles, a Belle Vernon Area School District teacher, who was with his wife, Madeline, and two daughters, 6-year-old Vivian and 5-month-old Isabella, said they were enjoying the Christmas celebration. It was their first time all together at the annual event.

“It’s good, as a family and community too, just bringing all kinds of different people together,” Casey Giles said. “I’m actually a school teacher in the district, so since I started coming to these and we did the summer event, too, I’ll see students out while I’m about, different families I’ve had in the past, it’s nice to just kind of see everyone in a different setting.”