GIRARD Games, food, music to highlight festival

The traditional procession to honor the saint will take place at 10 a.m. Monday.
GIRARD-- The city's more than 100-year-old tradition of observing the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel continues this year.
Italian Fraternal Home, 33 W. Wilson Ave., is sponsoring the Mount Carmel Festival starting Thursday. It runs through Monday, the actual Feast Day.
The festival is on the IFH grounds, and chairman of the event this year is Ray Raggozine Jr. Co-chairman is Myron Esposito.
Games, food by concessionaires and musical entertainment by area bands are planned for each evening. Food will be served starting at 5:30 p.m. and the bands will start playing between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
Featured this year are: Frank Gallo Band (Thursday), Mike Roncone Band (Friday), The Capri (Saturday), Tonelli Band (Sunday) and St. Margaret Band (Monday).
A car show for all classifications will take place on the IFH grounds from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
On Feast Day: Celebration of the Feast Day will begin with a parade starting at 10 a.m. Monday with a statue of Our Lady being carried to St. Rose Church, accompanied by the St. Margaret Band, for an 11 a.m. Mass.
A procession will leave the church after Mass and go to the city War Memorial in front of city hall at Market and Main streets, and then move back to the IFH Hall for lunch.
Members of the band will visit with local families before services are held to honor deceased friends and relatives, at 3 p.m. at Girard Cemetery and at 3:30 p.m. at Kerr Cemetery in Weathersfield Township.
A longtime festival supporter and worker, Ray Ragozine Sr., who died Nov. 3, 1977, will be honored at the Kerr Cemetery. Ragozine and Andy Revella worked in the late 1940s to start building the festival to include outside vendors and more entertainment.
The festival will end with traditional fireworks by Zambelli Fireworks at 11 p.m. Monday at the city side of the Girard viaduct.