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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
Joe Rossi is back in the saddle as a community activist, and the Rossi Farms Barn Bash is back on the calendar.
Produced by Rossi Farms' events manager Amelia Salvador, this year's bash will be 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday, July14 at Rossi Farms, 3839 N.E. 122nd Ave.
On the menu will be a dinner of grilled chicken - prepared by the Parkrose Lions Club - fresh green salad, baked beans and rolls, topped off with fresh strawberry shortcake.
On the menu as well will be three Wild West Shows at the farm's town facades. Stay out there and you can listen and dance to music by the Poor Sports, or go into the barn and do both to the tunes of Backstage Pass.
Rossi promises improved sound quality for Tom Mannen's Wild West performers this year and a new outdoor stage and dance floor.
Because of complaints, what you will not hear is the Civil War cannon demonstration. All this fun is had for $20 on the night of the event, or, $15 if tickets are purchased in advance at the Parkrose Farmers' Market. For a few dollars more, you can get beer or wine courtesy of Widmer Brothers, or soft drinks.
In exchange for volunteering for the event, this year's proceeds go to the Aldo Rossi/Parkrose Youth Football teams, the original beneficiary of the event. In addition, the monthly St. Rita Catholic Church Community Suppers and other causes will benefit for supplying volunteers to Rossi's event. A new recipient this year will be the Parkrose Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative (see “Parkrose, NPIs struggle to meet funding”), for which Rossi is chair of the steering committee. “It's the biggest game changer for this community we could hope for,” Rossi told the Memo. “Everything we raise (for NPI) is matched by the city at a rate of five to one. To do this sort of thing on our own would be out of the question.”
The Barn Bash started in 1998 and ended in 2007, when Rossi Farms ceased to operate. One of the reasons, Rossi says now, is that the venture no longer had the ready pool of volunteers that the Farms provided. It was re-energized last year, he says, by the effort to fund the Immigrant Statue at Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 99th Avenue, and the concurrent Parkrose Centennial celebration. “It was so successful we decided we'd continue it,” Rossi says. He personally is “both re-energized and exhausted,” he says.
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