Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
AFTER VOLUNTEERING during the St. Ann Fall Festival for decades Joe and Pat Cattelino enjoy the festival as guests Saturday in Saxon. Joe and Pat ran the bingo and raffle ticket tables for many years before "retiring" and spent their first year enjoying bingo as players.
TONI RATKOWSKI looks over the bag raffle prizes during the St. Ann's Fall Festival in Saxon Saturday.
SAXON, Wis. - The Saxon Community Center filled Saturday as community members gathered to play Bingo, enter the bag raffle, eat homemade food and take part in the St. Ann Fall Festival in Saxon.
For more than 80 years community members have gathered in support of the St. Ann Service Club which donates all the funds raised to area charitable organizations, programs and residents in need.
According to Deb Swartz, service club member and volunteer, the Fall Festival averages around 100 people from all around the area.
"We have people from Mellen, Saxon, Gurney, we have people from Ashland here tonight and Hurley. We also have parish members in Little Girl's Point who come and work during the festival." Swartz said.
Two parish members, Joe and Pat Cattelino, who worked the Fall Festival for decades on the raffle and bingo tables were able to enjoy the festival from the other side for the first time.
"This is the first time they are able to actually sit down and enjoy themselves without having to work. Pat always worked the raffle table and Joe ran bingo." Swartz said. "Since I became a parish member they have been volunteering, they are both at Sky View now and it is so nice to be able to have them come back and enjoy themselves."
Aside from bingo, the festival boasted a bag raffle, kids games, pumpkin weight guess, a 50/50 raffle and the annual cake walk held during intermission, which had more than 20 participants and entertained those young and old.2
"My favorite part is the sense of camaraderie about the Fall Festival, everyone comes together, this really is a homecoming. My husband has 11 siblings and, they aren't all here, but most of them come back for this." Swartz said. "We have families and generations of families that don't live here but come back to support the parish and the community."
