It started out as a quiet barbecue for parish staff almost 20 years ago, and grew to become a harbinger of summer for hundreds of parishioners and North Shore residents.
This year’s St. Joseph “Rock the Block” block party once again provided family-friendly food, music and community building for visitors from Wilmette and beyond, organizers said June 29.
The June 27 event at St. Joseph Church, organized by the St. Joseph Men’s Club, drew between 800 and 1,000 participants to church grounds at 1727 Lake Ave., men’s club head Jay Harron said.
Attendees benefited from sunshine and warm weather that was a rarity over the weekend, according to church pastor the Rev. Robert Tonelli.
“In the middle of the rain on Friday and the rain on Monday, we got the sun on Saturday. You could say God was on our side,” joked Tonelli, popularly known as “Pastor Bob” at St. Joseph.
Roughly 300 people attended the Mass that started the block party, Tonelli said, before taking advantage of children’s games and entertainers, as well as events for parents and other adults, including a music stage that featured live performances, a beer tent, food trucks and a raffle. The party went on until 11 p.m., he said.
Hundreds of children and teens watched balloon artists, had their faces painted or played video games in a special video game truck, Tonelli said.
“The food trucks were a big draw this year,” Harron added. “We had two from Chicago and two from the suburbs, serving things like tacos, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and gourmet grilled chicken. This is the second year we’ve had the trucks and they were definitely popular.”
Despite the raffle, the block party is not primarily a fundraiser, Tonelli and Harron said. Instead, it’s meant as a time to get together with old friends and provide an opportunity to meet new ones, whether from the St. Joseph family or from beyond the church community.
“It was originally more of a parish-oriented event where parish families could get together and celebrate in the summer,” Harron said June 25. “When the men’s club took over running it, about three years ago, we talked to Pastor Bob and he had a vision of going beyond our immediate parish.”
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Tonelli said that by the time the 100-man-strong men’s club took over the party, it had already evolved from the original cozy barbecue supper largely for St. Joseph staff and volunteers to a congregation-wide “country picnic” under the leadership of the church’s women’s club.
“(Women’s club members) came to me and said it was time to pass the baton to someone else, and we passed it to the men’s club,” he said. “It was their idea to switch it over from a Sunday to a Saturday, and to connect it with the regular five o’clock Mass we normally held on Saturday.”
The changes began to draw more visitors, something Harron said organizers didn’t mind: “If we can promote St. Joe’s to other people, that’s great.”
“When I look out on the crowd, it’s good to see people I know – but it’s good to see people I don’t know, too!”
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy