Grandview Park Hosts Concert To Benefit St. Basil's Church After Violence Closes Festival
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Supporters of St. Basil's Catholic Church in Carrick, including the Pittsburgh Police chief, showed up at Grandview Park Friday evening for a benefit concert.
Earlier this week, the parish was forced to cancel its popular annual festival because of rowdy teenagers and violence.
Six large fights between hundreds of teens on Brownsville Road Wednesday night caused police to intervene and ultimately led to the cancellation of the parish's summer celebration.
The festival was the main fundraiser for the church, and cancelling it was devastating for those who put it all together.
"We put a lot of hard work into this for it to happen the way it did," said chairman of the festival, Richard Heinz. "It's tough."
"For it to be cancelled after 31 years, it's a shame," said longtime Carrick resident Donna Williams, who serves on the Zone 3 Police Public Safety Council.
She says this isn't the first time teens have ruined events for their community.
"Because of the different crimes and actions up here, we don't have a whole lot of stuff," added Williams.
Friday's concert was free, but donations were accepted for the benefit of the church. Raffle tickets were also sold.
The southern rock group Gone South Band performed. They were supposed to perform at the festival Friday night.
St. Basil's Fr. Stephen Kresak said he hoped the incident that resulted in the festival's cancellation "would bring attention to issues in the community that need to be addressed."
Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay, also attending the concert, described what happened Wednesday night in Carrick as "spontaneous." He said that word of the fights got out quickly through social media.
Beth Currin, of Carrick, who brought her grandchildren to the concert, told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti that she enjoyed the concert, but "we miss the festival."
"We miss it a lot, my grandchildren were supposed to go today," she said.
There were no arrests and no problems at the Friday night concert.
"We thought it would be a great idea to have the benefit here, away from all of the issues in Carrick," said Kenneth Wolfe, who serves as president of the Zone 3 Public Safety Council, "but to help St. Basil's Church, because they have lost their biggest fundraiser this year."
The concert was hosted by the Zone 3 Citizens Council. All of the money raised will go to St. Basil's. The parish normally uses the funds from their annual festival to cover maintenance costs.
A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help St. Basil's Parish collect the roughly $45,000 it stands to lose.
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, who lives in Carrick and has frequented the annual event, says it's a shame that the group of unruly teens forced the church to cancel the event due to safety concerns.
"I'm not quite sure what the root of this is, but I think this is something that we need to figure out," she said. "These things don't happen out of nowhere. The teenagers who were fighting, they have families, they have homes, they have parents and we need to figure out what exactly happened."
Rudiak says she and community leaders are going to have to work together on reducing violence and increasing funding for social and youth programs.
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