Sharon Choules can tell you exactly what it takes to run the biggest fundraiser at St. Vincent de Paul Parish: “too much time.”
She’s one of the organizers behind the church’s Peach Festival, which returned to the parish’s Picton Street grounds in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Sunday for its 37th year.
The one-day event raises money for the parish hall and cemetery, and this year it took 123 volunteers to pull off.
The parish, founded in 1826, is celebrating its 200th anniversary, and the festival is one stop in a season of bicentennial events being held this year.
The planning for the festival starts in January with phone calls to arrange the tents, tables and chairs, Choules said. By May the organizing committee meets once a month, and it adds an extra meeting at the end of July to settle the final details before festival day.
Between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, volunteers sold peach crepes, sundaes, pie slices and whole pies, ran a raffle and a jewelry table, and hosted live music from Brad Boland and a professional face painter for kids. Demand outran supply at the pie table, where whole pies sold out before the festival closed.
The raffle offered four prizes, with donations this year from Vintage Hotels, Niagara Helicopters and Parks Canada, Choules said. Shoppers could also dig through the second-hand sale.
“We also have the white elephant table, so one man’s junk is another one’s treasure,” she said.
She said the festival has lasted 37 years because the volunteer base runs through every corner of parish life.
“We’re a very close parish and we all join all different committees, so everyone is helping everyone else out,” said Choules. “We’re just here to help the church with its finances.”
In nearly four decades, she can remember the weather winning only once.
“Rain swept in for about a half hour, blew all the tents down, but then we got it up and running and everything was good,” said Choules.
The parish traces its roots to French missionary work in the Niagara region dating back to 1626, and its church stands as the oldest Catholic church in continuous use for regular worship in Ontario. Its bicentennial calendar runs deep into the fall with picnics, a banquet and special masses.
The anniversary itself lands on Sept. 27, and the parish will mark the milestone with a gala at the Prince of Wales Hotel, which the bishop of the Diocese of St. Catharines is expected to attend.
