Slippery Rock celebrates Americana
SLIPPERY ROCK — Two blocks of South Main Street in the borough were turned into a festival of Americana on Saturday during the borough’s third annual Independence Day celebration.
Beginning at 1 p.m., two blocks of the street from New Castle Street to Cooper Street were closed off and lined with booths representing vendors, churches and organizations offering face painting, food, flags, goat milk soap and free Bibles.
Mayor Jondavid Longo said many of the booths and vendors were collecting donations for VFW Post 6231’s Grand Old Flag fundraiser.
He said the post is raising money to construct a 150-foot-tall flagpole on the highest hill of the Slippery Rock Parks and Recreation park to fly a 30-foot by 60-foot American flag.
“On certain days — the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day — it will be a 40-foot by 80-foot flag,” he said.
Longo said the project has raised $37,000 toward the $100,000 goal.
The mayor said the plan was to have the pole and flag in place by Memorial Day 2023. It’s been delayed, he said, because of inflation. “We’ve seen costs rise three times in the last months.”
The face-painting tent was donating its $5 fee toward the flag project.
Nicolina Depietro, in charge of the tent, said, “We’ve just started, and we’ve painted 10 kids. It’s going good. I think it’s been a hit so far.”
The most popular designs during the early going were Spiderman, Captain America and sharks for the boys and red, white and blue designs for the girls, according to Mary Depietro of Kennerdale, who was helping her daughter, Nicolina, out.
Mindy Stoops, owner of Misty Lane Farms Performance Horses, brought a carriage and her Percheron horses, Donnie and Ezra, to give rides from a Gateway Park gazebo.
She said her team could take up to six passengers at a time for a 15-minute ride beginning and ending at the gazebo.
“It’s a nice family activity. There’s no TV, so they get to talk with each other,” she said.
Stoops said the carriage rides would continue until 9:30 p.m.
“We’ll head out of here before the fireworks start. The horses aren’t fazed by them, but we want to move before more traffic comes into town,” Stoops said.
Brian Pollock, of Grove City, was lending his talents as an artist to the flag project. He wasn’t charging for his work, and the tips would go to the project.
While he is a caricaturist, he said he was giving people a straight representation.
“I’m (drawing) little kids, teenage girls, families. I’m kind to people,” Pollock said. “I just sit down and draw people with a permanent marker. I can do one in two to three minutes.”
“You have to be fast,” he added, especially when small children or dogs are the subject.
“Dogs have become very popular recently. It’s better if I have a picture. In a place like this, dogs can become distracted. Most people have a good picture of their dog anyway,” said Pollock, whose day job is as a graphic artist.
The Rev. Jeff Lynn was leading a contingent of his parishioners from Crossroads Baptist Church in Slippery Rock in handing out free Bibles and tickets for the church’s upcoming vacation Bible school Aug. 1 through 5.
“This is the third year. We do this (and) the Village Fest. We try to do as many public outreaches that we can," Lynn said. ”We’re trying to get the Gospel out to people. Anything we can do to get the message out.“
He said people asking if the gray John 3:16 T-shirts the church members were wearing were for sale gave him the idea the church should add the shirts to future outreaches.
The Independence Day celebration continued until a fireworks display slated for 9:30 p.m.
Denton Zeronas, a borough council member, said of the celebration, “I’m hoping to see it grow every year. I hope it gets bigger and bigger every year.”
