St. Joseph Festival celebrating 70 years

The St. Joseph Festival will be celebrating its 70th year when it opens the gates next weekend in Tiffin. The festival will take place from 2-10 p.m. on July 9 and from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on July 10. From 5-8 p.m., the sixth annual Car and Truck Show will take place on July 10. Check-in and registration is at 3:30 p.m. and the entry fee is $10 per vehicle. The first 50 cars registered will receive a dash plaque. Back this year will be pony rides, a wood carver and caricature drawings in addition to live entertainment. The festival will also feature the super raffle with the grand prize of $10,000. Other prizes are $300 cash; a Keurig Coffee Maker with K-Cups; two handcrafted bird houses; a Danby portable ice maker; a Cub Cadet SC300E Lawn Mower; a $50 Clover Club gift card; a $100 Jeffrey Jewelry gift card; a family game and fun package; and two adult Calvert all-sports passes. The festival has raised more than $5 million in proceeds for Calvert and area Catholic education. Looking back The festival has become a mainstay of Tiffin summers in its 70 years, and the ideas behind the inception of the gathering are essentially the same goals the festival reaches for today. A quote from the Sunday Bulletin, dated July 13, 1952, reads, "The primary purpose of the festival is to provide a social evening for all our parishioners, young and old, to get together for a good time; to meet old friends again, and also to become acquainted with new parishioners." Other major projects being undertaken by St. Joseph Parish in 1952-1953 included the establishment of the St. Joseph Credit Union (now Your Legacy Federal Credit Union) and raising money to support the building of a new Calvert High School. St. Joseph Parish agreed to support the new school in the amount of $225,000. Much of this money was raised by donations from parishioners, but in 1953, the parish decided to increase the parish festival to a three-day event, with all proceeds "to help reduce our parish debt to Calvert." In the early days of the festival, the grand prize was a new car instead of the $10,000 cash offered today. That first St. Joseph Festival, held in August, had net profits to the parish of $26,618.19. Ten years later in 1962, at St. Joseph Festival there were new booths constructed for all of the games. St. Joseph reports more than 600 parishioners cooperated as volunteers. The 10th festival had a profit of $29,007.21. Seislove Burial Vaults had been a sponsor for the Main Raffle ticket for five years in a row in the early days of the festival. They are still sponsors today. In 1972, funds raised by the Festival would be earmarked not only to Calvert, but $8,000 would be used to strengthen the CCD Program for children of the parish attending public schools. The Hobby Booth accepted donations of homemade articles, including quilts and afghans, baby clothes and knitted articles, to raffle off. Net profit for the festival was $35,002.30. When the 30th anniversary of the festival rolled around in 1982, the net profit was $66,453.70. Inflatable rides first joined the festival for its 50th anniversary in 2002. In that year, they included a rock wall, extreme trampoline rappel tower, obstacle course, bungee run, radar speed pitch, an "old woman in the shoe" slide and a bounce house. This year marks the 70th year of the festival. After two years of COVID restrictions getting in the way of full-on festivities, plans are underway for a return to a more normal, but updated festival this year, a representative for St. Joseph said. This year's festival steering committee is Heidi Sherman, Ashley Gibson and Del Ray Fox.