Cranfest draws crowd
CRANBERRY TWP — Cranberry Township is “getting really diversified” said township resident Yolanda Evans, who is a native of the Dominican Republic.
She was at an event called “Celebrate Cranfest” on Saturday at the township municipal center to show off this diversity and to bring different cultures together.
“It's doing what we had hoped it to do,” said Charles Hawkins, one of the organizers.
The event, which township manager Jerry Andree said drew thousands, featured 32 booths that represented countries, cultures and groups. Food from the countries could be bought at the booths.
It also featured 36 musical acts.
At the same time, Cranfest allowed residents to get a behind-the-scenes look at township operations, and featured a display of fire trucks, ambulances and police cars in the parking lot behind the center.
The ethnic portion of the event is new and was sponsored by the Cranberry Area Diversity Network. The municipal tour had been held in the past.
Andree said the event speaks to the diversity of the township, as well as the transparent operations of township government.“We're very proud of what's happening in Cranberry Township,” Andree said.Evans was one of the people helping at the booth for the Dominican Republic. She said the booth was offering samples of traditional dishes like chicken and rice, black beans, a type of soup and also pork chops.Alhussein Alghamdi, a student at La Roche College, was working at the booth representing Saudi Arabia. It had samples of Arabian coffee and tea.Alghamdi said the booth also would feature samples of Saudi food, which he said has elements of other ethnicities living in the country such as Indian and Egyptian food.“We want to show that Saudi food is different,” Alghamdi, a native of Saudi Arabia, said.Terrance Kible of Slippery Rock was enjoying a bowl of Indian food on Saturday afternoon.“I didn't catch the name, but it has tofu in it,” said Kible, who is a fan of both tofu and Indian food.He said he would try other foods later, and said he was enjoying the event.“I didn't realize there was this much diversity in Cranberry. I think it's great,” Kible said.Ron Fuchs of Cranberry said he was at the event mainly because his daughter was in a choir there. However, he also wanted to try some of the foods available.
He said his son was interested in getting Chinese food, but Fuchs noted that cuisine is available all the time elsewhere. He said his daughter is adventurous and likely would point the way to something new and different.“She'll break off the norm,” Fuchs said.James and Eileen Wrubel of Cranberry also were there because their daughter was performing, and also wanted to snag some ethnic foods.Eileen Wrubel said she was hoping to get some Filipino food, which she likes. She said it is hard to find Filipino restaurants in the area.“That's true of anything here,” James Wrubel said.
