Jul 30, 2009 2 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – Music, games and a variety of ethnic foods will be offered as St. John the Evangelist R. C. Church holds its annual festival on Sunday. From 11:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., the parking lot adjacent to the Crawford Avenue church will be filled with booths offering games of chance, a Chinese auction, baked goods, fried dough, perogies, halushki, kielbasa, hot sausage and the “best” chicken dinner, said Patty Check, member of the church Christian Mothers group. “Come early,” said Check. “The chicken dinners go quickly.”

Nearly 400 dinners will be ready for the one-day event.

However, there will be plenty of other ethnic foods as the Christian Mothers have gathered routinely over the past several weeks to prepare for the annual festival.

Proceeds will benefit ongoing church projects.

St. John’s was established in 1895 after immigrants from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, seeking employment made their way to Connellsville.

According to church history, Slovak and other ethnic groups including Poles, Hungarians, Croatians, Lithuanians, Czechs and Italians from the area became members of the first parish community. Later, the Poles, Italians and Hungarians organized and built their own churches in Connellsville.

Drastic changes in parish life took place during World War II as 182 of the churches’ parishioners served in the armed forces during the war.

Of those that served, 13 lost their lives, according to church history.

The church has gone through several renovation projects over the years and continues to serve its members with the Rev. Ronald Cyktor Jr. serving as pastor of the parish.

The festival, meanwhile, will also feature the music of Andy Fenis and The Trel-Tones and Party Time throughout the day.