Favorite foods, hunt for gifts, history on display draw crowds to Fort Ligonier Days

There’s too much going on during Fort Ligonier Days for the Kuhns family of Derry Township to take it all in during one visit.

Ian and Amber Kuhns and Ian’s mother, Stacey Kuhns of Greensburg, focused on browsing among the 200 vendors to purchase gifts and sample food Friday, the first of the Ligonier festival’s three days.

There’s a good chance they’ll return Saturday, to watch the festival parade — a must-see for 5-year-old daughter Kinsley.

“We always come here,” Ian Kuhns said of the festival. “It’s always fun and a good atmosphere.

“We like looking around to see what’s new.”

“You always find something different when you come here,” said his mother. Keeping an eye out for potential Christmas gifts, she stopped at a woodworker’s booth to pick up a street address sign for her family’s campsite near Erie.

Kinsley acquired some new items for her room’s “Lilo and Stitch” Disney movie decor and also was anxious to add to her jewelry collection.

The family stopped at an insurance company booth to get a pair of giveaway bobbleheads customized with photos of Kinsley and her 2-year-old brother Jaxson, who spent Friday in day care.

The aroma of cinnamon roasted almonds wafted through the air, but the Kuhns clan was on the hunt for fried vegetables followed by some sweet treats.

“I always get some ‘snails’ — they’re mini cinnamon rolls,” Ian Kuhns said.

A short distance away off Ligonier’s Main Street, Jeanette Stahr and several Johnstown-area friends were spending part of their ladies’ day out with a stop at the festival’s designated area for tasting and purchasing wine and spirits.

“It’s a fun time, and it’s just about a half-hour away,” Stahr said. “We stopped for breakfast, we’ll partake (wine) here and then we’ll go and get some crafts.”

The group patronized the booth of Woody Lodge Winery from Ashville, one of an expanded selection of 22 vendors in the tasting area.

Stahr took home some bottles of a dry red wine. One of her friends, Stacie Holsinger, preferred a blackberry port.

“We took a vacation day to come here,” Holsinger said. “We do get together once a month at a winery on (Johnstown’s) Broad Street.”

A longtime tradition at the festival is the all-you-can-eat pancake and sausage breakfast served Friday and Saturday at Heritage Methodist Church along the town’s central Diamond intersection.

It takes a crew of about 45 to serve up the morning meals, according to Chuck Shaffer, who chairs a committee overseeing various missions at the church — including the breakfast mission of hospitality.

“People will come back for their second sausage and their third pancake,” he said, estimating the church will serve as many as 1,000 each of pancakes and sausage links over the weekend. All five griddles in the church kitchen may be pressed into service on Saturday, typically the busiest of the two days.

Rick Goswick has been helping to man the griddles for 45 years.

“I come in at 5 in the morning,” he said. “My job is to preheat all the griddles and get them ready to start cooking.”

Many diners return year after year for the breakfast, and Goswick has got to know every one.

“I call them friends,” he said. As they go through the breakfast line, “I only get to talk to them for about 45 seconds, but we exchange things that have happened all year. Then I get to meet them again next year.”

Proceeds from the breakfast are donated to a local food bank.

In addition to serving the general public, the church makes pancakes for members of a Civil Air Patrol unit who help at the festival.

“There are between 40 and 60 teenagers,” Shaffer said. “They get a good breakfast before working on the weekend. They help with parking and picking up garbage.”

Some festival participants, especially the town’s busy merchants, don’t have time to break away from their work for a sit-down meal or to stand in line at a food booth.

That’s when 13-year-old Mikey Kinzler comes to the rescue.

Encouraged by his mom, April Kinzler, manager of Ligonier’s Paws on Main pet supply store, Mikey is in his third year taking orders from several merchants, filling them at the desired vendor and delivering the food on foot. In accord with his mother’s workplace, his service is dubbed “The Speedy Pup.”

“I wanted to find a way to make extra money, so my mom came up with the idea to make me a runner,” he said. If need be, he also will stop at the local dollar store if a merchant runs short of basic supplies.

He’s applied the tips he’s earned toward one of his favorite hobbies: collecting sports cards.

“I have a Christian McCaffrey rookie card from when he used to play for the (Carolina) Panthers,” he said. The running back now is a San Francisco 49er.

“I had the card graded, and it got a 10 out of 10,” Mikey said.

Since he’s mainly busy at mealtime, he has plenty of opportunities to enjoy festival activities.

“I hang out with my friends,” he said. “It’s a great time.”

The festival commemorates the events on Oct. 12, 1758, when forces at the local British fort successfully repulsed a raid by French foes and their Native American allies.

With many reenactors on hand, the festival is a prime time to tour reconstructed Fort Ligonier. That’s what Trafford’s Jessica Clausner did on Friday with her 12-year-old son, Drake.

“I got him out of school so he could see the fort,” she said. “They showed him some science and some history, a little bit of everything.”

Drake said his fort visit included a lesson about “potential and kinetic energy, how every type of energy went through a musket.”

Festival supporter honored

At the festival’s opening ceremony, Kip Crumrine of Ligonier Township, executive director of the local Valley Youth Network, received the inaugural Ralph Kinney Bennett Award.

Named in memory of the Ligonier native, former Tribune-Review reporter, senior editor at Reader’s Digest and Fort Ligonier trustee, the award recognizes someone who has helped to make Fort Ligonier Days a success but is not a member of the festival committee.

The Valley Youth Network property at the west end of town is used by first responders and also provides overflow parking for visitors during the festival, Crumrine said.

“I’m parking cars 10 hours a day for three days,” he said.

The faith-oriented Youth Network engages local high school students in Bible study, mission trips and community service. That includes helping with the Fort Ligonier Days festival.

“It’s all about community and what our town has to offer,” Crumrine said of the festival.