Festival grows with pasty goodness - see photos of the Irish Celebration by clicking to the right on :"love those photos you saw in the paper?"
Massage therapist Alice Rautio, gives Manocotta club member Alice Erb a massage at the Heritage of Faith Church Irish Celebration Friday.
Edwina Aker, far left, eats an Irish dish while talking to friends at the Wander Inn, located inside the Heritage of Faith Church, Friday.
Great Scots' band member Dylan Foley accompanies his team in the song "Scotland the Brave," as performed at the Irish Celebration in the Heritage of Faith Church.
POLSON — Traditional Irish food, music and hearty conversation filled the room of the Wander Inn at the Heritage of Faith Christian Church in Polson Friday, during their Second Annual Irish Celebration.
Plates were full of corned beef cabbage stew and drinks were filled with green beverage in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
“We’re trying to get enthusiasm going for next year,” joint organizer Sharon Payne said of the event, which saw an increase of leprechauns this year.
“There’s a lot of people around here who either are Irish, or want to be for a day,” she added.
Last year, the celebration was unexpectedly large. The kitchen ran out of pastys and had to purchase more at the last minute in the thick of the Irish fun.
This year, the celebration worked in collaboration with the Manocotta Club, which has been diligently baking pastys for their local scholarship fund. The club made more than 200 pastys last Thursday — with a recipe given by Irish cook Alice Rautio of Blue Willow Massage — and sold many at the celebration.
“Next year we’re going to have to triple what we’re making,” Rautio said.
Most of the dishes on the menu at the church were courtesy of Rautio, who descends from a long line of Dutch and Irish lineage. Rautio used to work at Pug Mahon’s in Billings, and brought recipes of corned beef cabbage stew and pastys to Lake County when she came to the area to practice massage therapy.
Rautio worked with Payne to organize the Irish Celebration, and brought not only her knowledge of Irish food to the gathering, but her love of massage as well. She eased the muscles of sore leprachauns and lassies alike, while Irish music and aromas filled the Inn air.
The Great Scots Pipes and Drums and the Shamrockers both made a cameo appearance at the celebration. Playing favorites such as “Highland Laddy.”
The money raised from the Irish Celebration will go toward the Buzz Box youth program and the Good Samaritan Club.