St. Patrick’s Day Family Festival moves to fairgrounds
The food at the St. Patrick’s Day Block Party will start being served at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 16. (Photo provided)
When Drew Hanson and the newly organized Mineral County Rec Club held their St. Patrick’s Day Family Festival three years ago, it was immediately a big deal. The location was, and has been, at the old Superior School but with new owners remodeling the property and more events for the event itself, new digs were needed.
“We have changed the location of the event this year from the old Superior School and Old Rockin' Rodeo to the Mineral County Fairgrounds in Superior to hopefully make the event more centralized and less spread out,” explained MCRC President, Bessie Spangler. “We are hopeful we will have nice weather like we did last year. The event is on Sunday, March 16 since St. Patrick's Day falls on a Monday.”
The day is blocked out from 2 until 6 .p.m with Chase the Rainbow Fun-Run 3K as being first on the event agenda.
“The route will start at the fairgrounds and head east towards the (Mineral Community) hospital and surrounding areas. It will be an out and back type of route,” Spangler said.
The chow line opens at 3 p.m., with the cost of $15 for an individual and a family can enjoy themselves for $35.
“The food will be prepared by the volunteers of the Superior Community Outreach Non-profit again this year. Carl Nordberg of Nordberg Electric will be smoking the corned beef again and if you haven't tried it, you are definitely missing out,” Spangler said
Spangler smiled. The slogan for the MCRC is "Building Community Through Adventure" with their family focused events keeping everything as affordable as possible, and because they are non-profit, donations, which are deeply appreciated, are tax deductible.
She said, “We plan to offer some more games and activities including a Chicken Poo Bingo and Tennis Ball Toss. We are always looking for donations for our raffle prizes and could always use more volunteers.”
Spangler applauds everyone who continues to help with their endeavors that are year-round activities many people do not realize are initiated by the MCRC alone, but they pull in other people and organizations to help and sometimes co-sponsor.
“We have a core group that tends to plan and volunteer at most of the Mineral County Rec Club Events, like Drew and Debbie Hanson, Carissa Kuhl, Josie Crabb, Jenn Donovan, Loie Turner, Cassie Ostle, Teal Post, Eric and Lori Wolf, Marianne Bell, myself and additional rec club members who help either with clean up or set up the day of the event,” she said.
The St. Patrick's Day event is the primary fundraiser for the MCRC which enables them to host events such as the Turkey Trot, Paddle Board Race, River Street Festival, and Clark Fork River Clean-Up.
“With the proceeds from our raffles and event revenue, we can pay for transportation to the outdoors such as funding our free Ski Bus, as well as provide liability insurance as community members recreate or participate in our hosted events. We support youth in obtaining costly ski passes and equipment. We also purchase other outdoor rec equipment for kids to borrow so that they can enjoy the outdoors without the cost.”
As the final touches are being processed for the St. Patrick’s Day Block Party, special committees are full steam ahead on everything else for 2025. Spangler took a deep breath and rattled off what the organization has on schedule, so far.
“Our upcoming events will be the River Street Festival (Stand Up Paddleboard Sprint) on July 12th this year. We are hopeful to have more participants this year as it will be our third time hosting this event. Every year we try to work out the kinks and make this as smooth and fun as possible. We plan to do another Clark Fork River Clean Up on Aug. 9. We are talking about focusing on a different stretch of the Clark Fork since last year we had volunteers float from Tarkio to St. Regis. We may spread out to start cleaning up tributaries to the Clark Fork like Trout Creek, Cedar Creek, Dry Creek, Flat Creek (to name a few). The Mineral County Conservation District was extremely helpful making that day so successful. Pickleball has been going on this winter at the Superior Elementary Gym on Sundays from 3-4:30pm led by Marianne Bell. We plan to move this outside over the summer to the tennis court at Eva Horning Park.”
If the MCRC isn’t spearheading the event, you will find them strong in support of other community events such as the 1st Tree Lighting Celebration on the courthouse and TrailWest Bank lawns and Pool in the Park fundraisers.