Rices Landing celebrates centennial
Between a centennial celebration, pageants, concerts and a plaque presentation, it would be difficult for anyone to choose which Rices Landing Riverfest activity would be the crowd favorite during the June 27-29 festival. That is unless you’re Joyce Hunt and Kim Provanc of Rices Landing First United Methodist Church. They agree unanimously that the highlight of Riverfest is not the bright, colorful lights or the shuffling feet of dancers, but in between a piece of bread. “Chicken salad sandwiches. That’s got to be our highlight,” Hunt joked, laughing with Provanc under the shade of a canopy for their vending table, filled with the typical foods of a bake sale: cookies, pies and chicken salad galore.
Besides the food, the enjoyable social atmosphere remains a high point for Hunt, Provanc, who was the emcee for the plaque presentation, and the other women working at the bake sale among the rows of vendors and games. “We like to see the people walking by and to see the older people coming to visit their hometown again,” Hunt said.
For Riverfest organizer and town mayor, Remo Bertugli, Sr., the three-day event along the bank of the Monongahela River is all about socializing and relaxing with family-friendly events. With a smile at the mention of the honorary plaque the borough received for 100-years since its incorporation, Bertugli adds that from the vendors to the people milling around the festival, there is a sense of happiness and satisfaction with this year’s Riverfest.
“People seem to like (Riverfest) this year. I really tried to make Riverfest and the centennial celebration coincide with each because people really go for that,” Bertugli said.
Activities include concerts, karaoke, games, horseback rides, pageants for infants up to teenagers and a weight-lifting competition.
Bill Phillips, one of the organizers for lifting contest held Saturday, has been involved with Riverfest for several years. Along with teaching at Jefferson-Morgan Elementary, he coaches at the high school, which includes bringing weight-lifting equipment to the festival so that players from area high schools can test their strength.
“We should have about a dozen or so kids this year,” Phillips said. “This is our third year for the competition. It’s not a big attraction for Riverfest; it’s more for the kids and the people involved.”
One event that does draw a big crowd is the Miss Riverfest pageant. With categories ranging from sportswear and evening gowns to a talent competition, Miss Riverfest combines all the aspects of Miss USA with a small-town twist. Waynesburg Central senior Elizabeth Carroll, this year’s winner, helps with a wide variety of festival tasks, including pony rides and starting dances, as part of her Miss Riverfest responsibilities.
Out of the countless Riverfest activities, Friday night’s plaque presentation might have the most significance for natives of Rices Landing. After decades of growth and a flourishing sea-trading economy, the advent of the highway meant the advent of a new era for the Greene County riverside community.
Despite economic hardship and cargo ships ceasing to dock, Rices Landing continued on as a close-knit community that has stuck around for a century. Hunt, a native of Dry Tavern and who often makes the short trek to the Rices Landing Methodist Church, describes the area as “a nice, quiet, livable town.”
“It seems that all of our good stores are gone – the post office, the hotel, the grocery stores – and now there’s not much left,” Hunt said of the town, where she has lived her whole life.
For three days during Riverfest, however, locals and visitors could focus on what Rices Landing can always offer: a picturesque landscape and the serenity of a town where names and faces go together. As Bertugli watched smiling faces walk by, he summed up the 2003 Riverfest with a simple phrase, “It’s just a nice family atmosphere.”
Admission to Riverfest is $2 per person, and children under 12 are admitted free. The festival concludes tonight.