LAVALLETTE — Lavallette’s Union Church held its Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 21, hosting a day of fun fall pastimes for kids and adults in the community alike.
The little church on Philadelphia Avenue, which is non-denominational, opened its doors to the public for an afternoon replete with fall-oriented, family-friendly activities. Welcoming both churchgoers and visitors into the festival, which was held mostly indoors due to the inclement weather, was a big bulletin board decorated for the occasion. The board said, “Fall for Jesus; He Never Leaves.”
The halls were decked out in orange, red and yellow; with chrysanthemums for sale and fallen leaves adorning the church, fall undoubtedly filled the air.
According to Darlene Piccione, a parishioner who helped to spearhead the event, this weekend’s Fall Festival was years in the making — in fact, it has been in the works for roughly a decade as a result of one of the worst natural disasters in Lavallette’s history: 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
“I’ve been with the church since 2012, right before Sandy hit,” Ms. Piccione said. “The funny thing about that is that they were going to have [the Fall Festival] that weekend that Sandy hit; it was a mess with pumpkins all over the place. [The festival] didn’t happen.”
“For the adults, we had hot dogs, apple cider — warm and cold — baked goods for sale, crafts for sale, mums for sale,” she said. “With the kids’ stuff, they were all based on donations. People just gave whatever they could give. We had a photo spot set up where parents could take pictures, we had pumpkin painting, face painting, nail painting, little tattoos for the kids…They seemed to love all the activities.”
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