Aug 8, 2010 By Christine Haines 4 min read

BROWNSVILLE – Even before the performers finished singing or the food booths sold their last funnel cakes at the first Brownsville Community Annual Festival organizers were making plans for next year. “This day is going beautifully,” said Brownsville Borough Councilwoman Tracy Sheehan Zivkovich. “We’ll wait a week, then gear up for next year.”

Zivkovich said about 25 organizations had booths at the festival, including area churches and fire companies and restaurants.

“It’s nice to have everyone work together and we pulled it off today,” Zivkovich said.

“This is one of Brownsville’s finest hours in a long time,” said Mayor Lester Ward. “We needed something to bring the community out and meet one another. Hopefully, we can make this a yearly event.

“We had something for everybody. It was just a tremendous event,” Ward said.

Councilman Charlie Perkins volunteered in the dunk tank. He also was one of the organizers of the car show held during the festival.

“We had 18 entries in the car show. Next year I hope we get more,” Perkins said.

Borough Councilwoman Teresa Hosler spent her day selling pizza and pop at the South Brownsville Ladies’ Auxiliary booth. She is also looking forward to a bigger festival in the future.

“This was a nice turnout today. I was amazed to see this many people show up. The parade was short, but really nice. Next year will be bigger and better,” Hosler said. “I haven’t heard anyone say a negative thing yet. Everyone’s having a good time. That makes it all worth it.”

Brownsville Council President Jack Lawver agreed.

“It’s nice to see all the people on the street. There’s a little bit of everything and it’s all good. There’s been a lot of enthusiasm. It created a lot of excitement for next year,” Lawver said.

Sophia Nuckels of West Brownsville was at the festival with her daughters, Martele, 6, and Amelia, 4, and her aunt, Patty Craig of Brownsville. Nuckels said her daughters enjoyed the petting zoo the most.

“It’s good for Brownsville to have these things,” Nuckels said.

Craig said she hopes the festival becomes a regular event for the community.

“This is the most people I’ve seen in downtown Brownsville. I was shocked,” Craig said.

Craig commended the borough council members who have committed to making a difference in the community.

“It was a really great turnout. I hope they do it every year,” said Jordan Sealy of Brownsville.

The event also drew visitors from the surrounding communities.

Marsha Shea and Brenda Cousins of Republic were there to cheer on their rubber ducks. Shea owns Apone’s in Brownsville and sponsored one of the 11 large rubber ducks that participated in the corporate ducky race. Approximately 980 small rubber ducks were sponsored by individuals in the community ruby ducky race.

“We had three ducks in the little duck race. I don’t think we were even close, but it was fun. It was nice just to see them and to see Brownsville doing something like this,” Cousins said.

Peggy Thomas of Uniontown works at Pixels Restaurant in Brownsville and brought her husband, Paul, to the festival. “We came to see the ducky race,” Paul Thomas said. “We didn’t win,” Peggy Thomas was quick to add. “It was the first one to drown.”

Linda Bradey’s rubber duck crossed the finish line first in the community race, followed by ducks sponsored by Keith Ryan, Jennifer Mosier and Meghan Miske. The Route 40 Classic Diner duck finished first in the corporate race.

Josh Clark, a Sheffield, England, native now living in Roscoe, also enjoyed the event.

“I’ve lived here three years now and I’m very supportive of local events. I think it went very well today,” Clark said.

Saturday’s event was co-sponsored by the council, the mayor and the Brownsville Area Revitalization Corp (BARC).

BARC is sponsoring a free blues concert by Jill West and Blues Attack today at 6 p.m. on the grounds of Nemacolin Castle.