Oceanside CA— The City of Oceanside and the “Friends of Oceanside Parks” held their the Annual Heritage Park Fall Festival on Saturday. This annual event raises funds for the “Friends of Oceanside Parks,” a non-profit organization founded to help support family-focused recreational opportunities in Oceanside.
“This is the best time of year for a fundraiser.” said Terri Loverro, vice-chair of Friends of Oceanside Parks and Recreation “The weather is perfect and we are not competing with other fundraisers,families are here and everyone is just having fun.”
The festival featured a chili cook-off, book sale, bake sale, games for the kids and a little surprise birthday treat for the “Hot Dog Man”.
Marty Goren of ‘Dad’s Hot Dogs’ fame turned 81 years old on Saturday and he treated the crowd to a little song after receiving a birthday cake from Eileen Turk, the Oceanside Parks and Recreation Division Manager. You can see a snippet of his song on our Instagram page here [Link] Marty was accompanied by “Mel’s Class of ’68” with Mel Vernon on guitar, Don Bell on bass and David Haygen on drums.
The Oceanside Firefighters claimed the top spot, in voting, for the Chili Cook-off while the chili from The North County Model Railroad Society took first from the celebrity chefs. Following the firefighters in the vote were the Railroad Society in second place and third was the “Lunch Lady Chili” prepared by chefs from the Oceanside Unified School District.