St Augustine Parish Italian Festival July 27-Aug 1

The St Augustine’s Parish annual Italian festival will be held at the Parish Grounds Tuesday July 27 through Sunday August 1. There will be children’s rides, game booths, lots of food, a white elephant sale, and a $10,000 grand raffle. Last year my kids went bananas on the rides, which were good fun, and Luke’s cub scout pack volunteered at the Goldfish booth. We won one of those huge rubber bouncing balls at one of the game booths, which Max bit, and the goldfish didn’t quite make it to collect social security. But we had fun, and I recall that the parish raised their goal. It is the largest fundraiser for the church and school they have. 

This is as good a time as any to post a few pictures of the church and school grounds, which are utterly beautiful, as the campus overlooks the Hudson River. There are a number of very pretty shrines, the church building is majestic, and there is even an outdoor Station of the Cross. The campus was Mary Immaculate High School, an all -girls institution which closed in 1976, and it re-opened shortly after when St Augustine’s old school was destroyed to widen Route 9. 

My family were parishioners at St Ann’s in Ossining for almost 50 years until I moved in 2007. My brother’s children attended St Augustine’s when Luke started school and we chose to send him there. It is a beautiful place, and these photos don’t really do it justice. I will post some more festival oriented photos soon.