Parish Family Festival back after two years
CRANBERRY TWP — This year’s Parish Family Festival at St. Ferdinand Roman Catholic Church, 2535 Rochester Road, will feature a number of firsts.
It’s the first festival in two years, with the previous events in 2020 and 2021 being canceled by COVID-19 concerns.
It’s the first festival of the newly formed Divine Grace Parish bringing together St. Ferdinand, St. Gregory Catholic Church in Zelienople and Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church in Ellwood City. Divine Grace Parish was constituted by Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh Diocese on July 1.
And it will be the first festival in his new parish for the Rev. James Wehner, who was appointed as senior pastor for the new parish.
The three days of live music, food, bingo, raffles, fair games, a children’s play area and a massive white elephant sale will run from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday at St. Ferdinand, with the white elephant sale opening and closing one hour earlier than the festival hours.
For Wehner, the festival offers him a chance to see and be seen by his new parishioners.
Wehner said, “It’s a chance in this post-pandemic season for the wider community to get together in a large-scale event to enjoy each other. I’’m going to use this festival to meet as many people as I can.”
He’ll have a lot of people to meet. The new Divine Grace Parish encompasses 230 square miles and a population of 65,000 people, 20,000 of them, Wehner pointed out, are Catholic.
Wehner spent 10 years running the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, one of the largest in the country. Zubik appointed Wehner as the first pastor of the newly created Divine Grace Parish effective July 1 where he will work with three senior vicars and two deacons.
Wehner took over his duties just before Robin Frankford and Becky Stellar started ramping up their efforts as the co-chairman of the festival’s massive white elephant sale.
For Frankford, this was her 21st year of overseeing the sale and its 100 volunteers. Stellar was one of those volunteers for 16 years before sharing the top spot with Frankford.
“Doing the sorting process, a lot of the stuff not suitable for the sale will be sent to Goodwill and a lot of the medical supplies, walkers, canes, potty seats, will go to the Brother's Brother Foundation,” Stellar said.
Starting Saturday the lawn next to Oldenski Hall sprouted tents and tables as volunteers worked to move the donations out and under the tents.
“I do have the best volunteers,” Frankford said. “The average age is 69, and 87 was my oldest volunteer.”
She said she got a big lift from Seneca Valley High School football coach Ron Butschle and 40 members of the football team who arrived to move furniture and other merchandise outside to be sold.
“They were a big part of moving things. They were very needed and very well used,” Frankford said. “We were exhausted. The boxes were getting heavy; They were like fresh blood on Saturday.”
“People line up for two hours before the sale starts on Friday,” said Stellar, adding the festival and the sale draws people from the tri-state region.
Jamie Shearer, who’s co-chairing the festival with his wife Judy, said merchandise for sale ranges from tools to furniture to sports equipment to kitchen appliances to books collectibles to craft items to plumbing fixtures.
“We say we have everything and the kitchen sink,” said Shearer gesturing to a stack of kitchen sinks.
Everything and the kitchen sink could also describe the food that will be on offer this weekend. Bob Wahl, who’s in charge of midway food being offered in 62 food booths outside the hall, said treats on offer will include cotton candy, pretzels, nacho, pizza and kielbasa.
That’s not counting the sit-down meals that will be offered each night in Oldenski Hall.
Jamie Shearer said each church in the parish will take turns preparing and serving the meal with Holy Redeemer preparing a pasta meal Friday, St. Ferdinand offering barbecue chicken and corn on the cob Saturday and St. Gregory’s parishioners preparing and serving stuffed pork chops Sunday. He said the parish expects to sell 600 to 700 meals each night.
Judy Shearer said there also will be live entertainment from different groups each night as well as fair-style games, bingo, raffles, a kiddieland section with games and prizes for children up to 12 and a child-sized train that will travel around the festival grounds.
Money raised during the festival will go into the parish’s general ministry fund, Jamie Shearer said.
On Sunday night, Frankford said there will be a final box sale where for $10 a person can load a box with unsold merchandise. Then, as in past years, representatives from 12 to 15 charities will arrive and take as many items as they want.
Jamie Shearer said it takes at least 500 volunteers, setup people, kitchen workers, people manning the white elephant sale, food booths and game booths to make a successful event.
Frankford said of her volunteers, “I’ll give them September off. In October, we’ll start having meetings to begin planning next year.”
