By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Organizers said they believe they saw record attendance Saturday as thousands descended on the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on SR 15N in Warsaw for the annual day-long church festival held each year in August.
The festival — La Feria Guadalupana — centers on the equivalent of a Sweet 16 celebration for young girls. There was lots of live music, games and dancing — and maybe most importantly — 19 food booths.
Diana Diaz Barringa, one of four main coordinators, said that while the festival has grown each year, she said she thinks the turnout Saturday was record-setting in part because of expanded parking.
A final tally was not yet available Monday, but there were telltale signs of a record attendance. Nearly 1,000 arrived through a pilgrimage, she said.
“We sold out of everything,’ except with the exception of some of the fresh waters,” she said.
On Saturday, she talked about the importance of outreach and said she hopes non-Hispanics feel welcome to attend in the future.
“We really have grown into something big and we want the community to see what we have to share and see our culture and our customs. We just want everyone to come and celebrate with us,” Diaz Barriga said.
Last year, the festival generated more than $70,000 for the church.
Language Matters
Mayor Jeff Grose attended the festival and spoke to the crowd Saturday morning and used the moment to highlight city services available for those not proficient in English.
The translation services began about four years ago under Mayor Joe Thallemer and were recently expanded to 40 hours a week.
Grose talked with Lucas Fonseca, founder of Language Matters, which began six years ago and now provides services in Marion and Logansport as well as Warsaw
Fonseca said the service is catching on and in recent months saw the number of calls per month reach 1,000.
“It really just shows the need in the community to offer some of the services, and it is really (good) to see the department helping local organizations to offer their services to people who have not been able to find them before,” Fonseca said.
In addition to helping with communications for basic city services, he said they’re also helping connect with community groups.
“We’re just super happy to be able to help people with sometimes just simple things. Sometimes it’s just paying bills, sometimes it’s more complex legal stuff,” Fonseca said, recalling two separate calls from people who had water in their basement and a tree ready to fall on their house.
City police have their employees who do translations when needed, but Language Matters can bridge the gap for those needing administrative-related assistance for police matters.
To learn more, go to languagemattersprograms.com or call 260-222-5131 for translation services.
