Maryhill celebrates last picnic

By JULIE KEANE, Globe staff reporter
August 12, 2004

Sunday was a bittersweet day for parishioners of Maryhill Visitation as they celebrated their final parish picnic together with games, food, raffles and an auction.

"The tradition of the picnic is so strong and has become part of families getting together," Father Gene Sitzmann, pastor of Visitation said. "Drawing their own children and grandchildren in and sharing that with other parishioners."

Father Gene said although the picnic is part of the parish's tradition because the population is shifting from a rural setting to an urban setting, it is hard to keep parish events like the picnic alive.

"It is rare when one stays in the community," he said. "We are downsizing. It is on the threshold of being too much to handle. The public attending these types of events is dwindling."

Although the day ended an era for the parish, Father Gene said the day couldn't have gone better.

"There was only one word for the picnic - perfect," Father Gene said. "Perfect in every way. Even though the weather was forecast to be unstable. The weather was perfect - the day was perfect."

The picnic started at 2 p.m. to allow time for those attending to socialize and enjoy some of the games.

"We started early which gave people time to visit," Father Gene said. "We had old fashion games to bring us back to the origin of the picnic."

Some of the games included a balloon toss, cakewalk, kick your shoe and a gunny sack race. At 3 p.m. the chicken supper began. As pre-planned, 1,500 chicken dinners were served.

The auction started at 7 p.m. The parish sent out a complimentary dinner ticket to local businesses and asked if the business would be willing to donate an item to the auction. Father Gene noted there were over 150 items donated this year. There were many different items including farm and gardening items, a bird bath, a chiropractic pillow, Maryhill afghans and cookbooks, handmade cedar bowls, tanning sessions, a Maryhill memorial wall hanging and many other items. Father Gene noted one wood carving sold for $1,500.

"We had a parishioner that made a wood carving of all of the words to The Lord's Prayer," Father said. "It's really a masterpiece."

One unique action item was Father Gene's car. The 1976 Volvo was only owned by Father Gene and sold for $2,150.

"I received a gift of a car from a businessman and I am going to be retiring," he noted. "It is a fine car, but it is not a car you can drive to Alaska to visit at this point in its life history. I was looking forward to getting a more recent vehicle and I got that. This was a special picnic, it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do."

Those attending the picnic had a chance to win a money jar, a quilt, a adult and child door prize and a Navajo afghan.

Although this year concluded the annual parish picnic, Father Gene said the parish will still celebrate each year keeping the tradition alive for parishioners.

"Using our heads and listening to our hearts, we are going to take it back to where it started," Father said. "In 1918, it was a parish social gathering. That is what we will do. We will keep all of the traditions. It will be open to parishioners and their children and grandchildren will be invited. I can see us having a cake walk and a fish pond. The only thing is that we won't be working, we will be socializing."