Irish Festival Night - Tuesday, June 27

Here are all the details for this year's Irish Festival Night

Tickets
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS, and remember you save $2.00 with every ticket you buy in advance of game day.
SPECIAL OFFER: Pay it forward with a special $10 Irish Festival Night ticket that benefits the JP Foundation. To take advantage of this deal, you must contact Nick Iacona (716-846-2211, [email protected]) in advance of Tuesday's Game.

Pre-Game Pavilion Party
TIME: From 5-7pm
ENTERTAINMENT: Live music from 'The Leftovers' as well as performances by the Rince Na Tiarna dancers
FOOD SPECIALS: Enjoy a Corned Beef Platter (with potatoes, cabbage carrots and rye bread) for only $8.00 or Corned Beef Sandwiches for only $5.00.

IRISH NIGHT HONOREE: Margaret Overdorf

Margaret "Peg" Overdorf was born and raised on Mackinaw Street in the Old First Ward neighborhood in Buffalo. She still resides there today and has served as the Executive Director of the Valley Community Association in the adjacent Valley neighborhood. She has become a true community leader in every sense of the word. Her efforts have such a resounding effect that her name is now a familiar one throughout Buffalo and Western New York. Her focus has been to improve the quality of life in a low socio-economic area of the city and it has been more than a thirty-year work in progress.

The Valley Community Association Inc. (VCA) began in a small storefront building where the entire staff shared one office along with a variety of programs in the same space. Peg was originally hired as a part time employee in 1976. In 1979 Peg took over as Executive Director of the association and under her guidance the VCA has grown from a $37,000 annual budget agency to one of over $1.6 million. It has gone from a small storefront to three separate buildings housing two-day care centers, a senior citizen center, and a community center. Additional classrooms were added on to the center to accommodate the ever-increasing enrollment in the "Striving For Excellence" After School Program. 

Peg's ambition and foresight are what made all of her accomplishments possible. She has given the community a "home base" of sorts. The VCA provides assistance to anyone in need - whether it is helping a working mom get affordable child care for her children, helping kids with their homework after school, supporting families with a food pantry, or offering socialization and transportation opportunities to senior citizens. Many have found a place at the VCA where they are encouraged, supported, and able to thrive. Without her tireless fundraising efforts and grant seeking the VCA would not be what it is today. With all of the recent funding cuts for non-profit agencies, Peg never accepts no for an answer. She is continually searching for other funding through different sources, often working late into the night.

The programs Peg have initiated run constantly and year round at the VCA. Socialization, congregate dining, transportation, and recreational activities are among the services provided for senior citizens while the youth program "Striving For Excellence" offers a comprehensive array of youth services including homework assistance, tutoring, counseling, prevention trainings and workshops, mentoring, positive recreational activities, community service projects, and computer training. A scholarship program has also been developed where 8th grade and high school juniors and seniors are given help looking for high schools or colleges and are guided through the application and financial aid processes. For local un/under-employed residents, the VCA offers resume services, job referrals and postings, computer trainings, and job skill enhancement courses. Various events throughout the year aim to promote community togetherness, neighborhood spirit, and ethnic pride. These include the "Old Neighborhood" St. Patrick's Day Parade, Buffalo River Fest, a community Easter Egg Hunt, and a Christmas Parties for young and old.

Through Peg's efforts the VCA utilizes resources within the educational, business, governmental, and human service community to enhance programming and provides services not offered by the VCA. Peg has partnered and collaborated with local schools, businesses, corporations, organizations, labor unions, other non-profit entities, and individuals to increase the effectiveness of the programs delivered and to enhance the community bond. 

Peg has devoted countless hours to the enhancement of the Valley and Old First Ward neighborhoods. For over twenty years she ran a weekend long carnival - The Rally in the Valley - as a fundraiser for the VCA. Ten years ago the carnival was replaced with the Buffalo River Fest, a region wide event that focuses on the restoration and beautification of the Buffalo River Front. She also is the founder of the popular "Old Neighborhood" St. Patrick's Day Parade, which not only serves as a fundraiser for the VCA but also as an event for the people of the neighborhood, and those who may have moved away, to enjoy the community and their Irish heritage. Each event sees the return of many who have moved out of the neighborhood, but have not forgotten their roots. 

Peg places a strong emphasis on neighborhood beautification, turning what was once a polluted dumping ground behind the Valley Community Center into the Valley Nature Park and Habitat Trail, a place where countless nature lovers enjoy throughout the year. The park was awarded the Civic Empowerment Award from the Buffalo Niagara All American City Committee. 

In 2011 Peg, with the help of then NYS Assemblyman and now current City of Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder, transformed an industrial brownfield on the Buffalo River into Buffalo River Fest Park. It is a beautifully landscaped, three acre, public access park, which features interpretive signage, garden beds, walkways, a boardwalk and wharf, an amphitheater, and boat docks. In 2016 The Tewksbury Lodge, a restaurant and banquet facility, opened in Buffalo River Fest Park.

One year later in 2012, Peg and Mark Schroeder celebrated the opening of the Mutual Riverfront Park on the Buffalo River. It was the result of negotiations with the New York State Power Authority when they planned to store the ice boom on the site. In the shadow of Buffalo's historic Elevator Alley, Mutual Riverfront Park features two brick buildings - one a boat storage house and the other the VCA's "Waterfront Memories & More Museum", seven rain gardens, and a kayak launch.

The mission of the Valley Community Association is the dedication to enhancing the quality of life of the residents of the Buffalo River Community by meeting individual and family needs and promoting environmental beautification. Advocating a strong sense of empowerment and ownership, the VCA's committed staff and volunteers serve infants through older Americans with health-related, educational, economic, social, and recreational assistance and opportunities. 

Peg has made a lifetime commitment to the mission of the VCA and to the Valley and Old First Ward neighborhoods and truly deserves recognition for her dedication and accomplishments.