Italian culture embraced at St. Rocco’s Festival

Photos by Tom Rivers

HULBERTON – Jeff Gifaldi of Holley throws the bocce ball during today’s tournament in Hulberton. Gifaldi, 35, formed a team for the tournament for the first time and they won their first three games.

“It’s a blast,” Gifaldi said. “It’s a good bunch of people here.”

The Holley community embraced its Italian heritage with the annual St. Rocco’s Festival today. The festival features lots of Italian food, a bocce tournament, produce sales and other events to raise money for the St. Mary’s and St. Mark’s Parish for Holley and Kendall.

Rosemary Bower gets some Italian sausage ready for a customer. Popular Italian foods such as eggplant parmesan, meatball sandwiches, pasta fagioli, pizza and shells were served.

Dan Mawn works on some fried waffles that would then be covered in confectionary sugar.

Emilio Monti of Rochester reacts after rolling the bocce ball during a game today. Monti’s team won its first four matches. The team won the tournament last year. They practice twice a week at the Italian American Community Center in Rochester.

The festival included several games for children. Joey Camacho, 5, of Brockport tosses a ping pong ball towards a table of jars. His mother, Dana Swanger, cheers him on. If the ball made it in a jar, the child would win a goldfish.