2023 Norwin Community Picnic at Irwin Park in Irwin, PA

I haven’t written a blog post about the Norwin Community Picnic since 2019.
Think of what a drastically different world we were living in, back in the summer of 2019 (that’s crazy to think about).
The pandemic brought changes and adjustments for the Community Picnic – but no matter what – the Norwin Chamber of Commerce has pushed forward and continued to host this huge annual community event.

In 2020, the picnic was entirely online. My Dad (the “famous” emcee of the event) sat on the stage at Calvary Church in Irwin and they pulled names and read them into a camera. Just a skeleton crew was present.
In 2021, the picnic was half-online, half in-person. They held the prize drawing live at Irwin Park, but like 2020, it wasn’t it’s usual “you must be present to win” setup. There was a small crowd of people, but most of us watched from our TVs at home.
2022 was the year when they began to really amp things back up. The Chamber brought in vendors, food trucks, organized a shuttle service, and they advertised the picnic heavily. There were some bumps along the road, but they made it happen and a huge crowd of people turned out.

Which brings us to this year! The Chamber did a fantastic job at noticing the “problems” with last year’s picnic (issues with the shuttle service, things not running on time, not enough food trucks, etc.), and they worked really hard to remedy them for this year. And I must say: I think the Picnic ran smoother than ever!

It was a gorgeous, fun-filled, fabulous evening – filled with the grand duckie race, delicious food and ice cream, time spent sitting with family and friends, and my Dad saying all sorts of crazy things into the microphone (every year that he stands up to do this, my Mom holds her breath, because, you never know what he’s going to say!)
And all-in-all, the “Eichelberger family” crushed the prize drawing in 2023! I can remember MANY years of the Community Picnic, not knowing a single person who’s name was called (let alone anyone in our family), but this year, we took home FIVE prizes! My Mom, my cousin Lydia, my brother-in-law Nathan, my nephew Leo, and LEANDER all won prizes this year!! (More on that in a minute!)

All that being said: we still sorely miss the Norwin Community Picnic being held at Idlewild Park and Soakzone. Sure, we have season passes to the “Palace Entertainment” parks (Kennywood, Idlewild, Sandcastle, Dutch Wonderland, etc.) so we’ve already visited Idlewild this year – but there was just something extra memorable and magical about being at Idlewild for the Community Picnic.

I love the vibe of Irwin Park – the Norwin Chamber of Commerce does an excellent job at making it as festive as possible – but no matter what, it’s still only a “few hours” (at most) time together. Going to Idlewild was an entire day-long getaway. And I really miss that aspect of the Picnic.

Maybe one day we’ll get back to Idlewild (I know there is definitely a section of the Norwin population – including our neighbors – who simply will not come down to the park, but would be thrilled to go back to Idlewild!) so, we’ll see what the future holds!

If you’d like a waltz down memory lane, you can find my past posts about our days at the Norwin Community Picnic (all held at Idlewild Park and Soakzone) here: Idlewild 2019, Idlewild 2018, Idlewild 2017, Idlewild 2016, Idlewild 2015

The cousins (my children’s favorite part about the Community Picnic!)

If you’re like, wait a second, who is this couple? They don’t look familiar! This is Eric & Sarah – they run White Tree Cafe & Coffeehouse in downtown Irwin where my sister Ruby works! (If you’ve never been there – it’s AMAZING!)

When my Dad called Leander’s name – I honestly thought he was going to explode from excitement! Well, equal parts excitement/equal parts confusion as to why his name was being called over the microphone. He didn’t even know what he won, but he was SO excited to go up and get his prize!