Steve Gonsalves can hardly contain himself. As an organizer of the Marion Town Party and one of Marion’s leading public servants, Gonsalves is brimming with enthusiasm during a conversation about the 2013 edition of the event, taking place on Saturday, August 24, from 4:00 to 10:00 pm on Spring Street in front of the Town House.

“It’s so great to have all of these organizations involved in an event that is solely about the community,” he said. “This is for the townspeople. That’s why we keep the food so inexpensive, for instance, as excellent as it is. We want you to be able to take your family and actually be able to afford it.”

The Marion Town Party – which has existed in one form or another since the late 1800s – is sponsored by the Marion Recreation Department, the Marion Firefighters Association, and the Marion Police Brotherhood, supported by the help of several local businesses. The event was formerly handled by the VFW, who stay involved by running the bar (which will offer beer, wine and soda).

The menu will include burgers, hot dogs, sausage, seafood and more. Gonsalves said that organizers invite bakers to bring as many goods as they’d like for a table devoted to pastry, cakes, pies, cookies and breads.

The Marion Town Party is the place to be for chowhounds, and also for children, who can look forward to such features as a climbing rock wall, a dunk tank, and a bubble bounce obstacle course so large, said Gonsalves, that organizers “are still looking for a place to put it on Saturday.”

The festivities will also include a 50-50 raffle, an auction, a plant table for fall gardeners, a DJ with “dancing in the streets,” and a bonfire behind the Town House.

“People really enjoyed that last year,” Gonsalves said, “so we’re happy to bring it back.”

When asked what the Marion Town Party means to him and his fellow residents, Gonsalves didn’t hesitate.

“It’s about tradition,” he said. “I promised Joe Zora, Sr., who was a such a dedicated public servant for such a long time, that I would help carry on the event, and it has been an honor to live up to that.”

By Shawn Badgley

“As far as we know, it’s been 103 years for this fair,” said Grange Secretary Susan Lafleur on Saturday afternoon around 1:00 pm, just as the annual Rochester Grange Fair was getting under way.

The Grange Fair, which normally occurs the same weekend as the larger Rochester Country Fair, awards ribbons and cash prizes to entrants in categories such as best vegetables, baked goods, flower arrangements, needlework, photos, paintings and conservation collections made by local children that consist of natural things like bugs, seashells and leaves.

All of the entries were displayed around the large room inside the 107-year old Grange Hall, and by Saturday morning, the ribbons had been awarded and were ready to be handed out.

Though it doesn’t draw the number of people that the Country Fair does, the Grange Fair is still a hit with a small community of locals both young and old.

“We’re hanging in,” Susan said. “People come back every year. There’s a pretty steady core that likes to come for the fun of it.”

That fun also consists of a ham and bean supper that’s been held every year for the past decade, and after dinner, there’s an auction consisting of many things displayed in the room, and the ribbons and prizes are awarded.

“We don’t have big crowds, but the people that come enjoy bidding against their buddies,” said Susan.

Lafleur said that back in the 1950s, the Grange Fair was three days long and there were horse pulls and other events, but they weren’t able to keep some of those traditions alive.

“Now, it’s kind of hard to do that stuff,” she said.

Susan’s husband, Herbert Lafleur, is the Grange Fair Chairman, and as the fair started Saturday afternoon, he was still running around Rochester and the property, meticulously making sure everything was in place for the day’s events.

“There’s a lot of natural stuff here,” said Herb as he was on his way to the market to pick up some last minute items for the day. “I hope people like it.”

Susan said that a lot of the gardeners associated with the Grange and the fair said they hadn’t enjoyed the best summer because of the heat waves and dramatic changes in weather over the last few months, but they still were able to get some nice vegetables and flower arrangements entered.

“What they got came out good,” she said. “It wasn’t the best year garden-wise is what they’re saying, but we’ve got it covered.”

It seems that even though there are a lot of things working against a place like the Rochester Grange, the group still works hard to ensure that a tradition stays in place.

“There aren’t that many grange fairs around these days,” Susan said.

By Nick Walecka