By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



The Town of Brookside will play host to two events this weekend, designed to bring awareness to progress being made to the town’s greenway project and the town’s past.

On Friday, campers will have the opportunity to bring an RV or tent and camp out at the Brookside ball park.

Mayor Roger McCondichie said there aren’t any RV hookups at the site, but he anticipated at least 10 groups of campers and as many as 50 campers. Hot dogs and drinks will also be sold and campers can take part in hikes, the telling of ghost stories or listen to live music.

The cost to camp out at the park is $10.

Five Mile Creek Partnership Coordinator Francesca Gross said the camp-out is designed to give the town an idea about what it would be like to open a camping park on Five Mile Creek.

“it’s going to be small,” McCondichie said of the camp-out. “We want to see how it’s going to work.”

McCondichie said the camp-out should also serve to generate some interest in a Russian Orthodox festival, sponsored by the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church.

The town of Brookside is steeped in Russian heritage and McCondichie said the festival is a good way to explore that history.

According to Brookside’s Web site, immigrants from the Western Ukraine and what is now known as Slovakia were early settlers in Brookside. St. Nicholas Church was founded in Brookside in 1894.

The menu for the festival includes traditional dishes including holupki (cabbage), piroshki (meat pie) borshch (beet/meat soup) and a variety of authentic pastries like imperial squares and Russian tea cakes.

Saturday will also feature a performance from the Russian Beauties dance group at 1 p.m.

Sunday is All Soul’s Day, which commemorates the faithful departed.

A ceremony will be held to mark the day and priests will bless the graves at the town’s historic cemetery. Candles will also be lit on the graves.

“It will be a fantastic cultural experience to see,” Gross said. “It will be a whole neat weekend celebrating the culture of Brookside’s past and also to see what they’re trying to do for the future.”

That future includes more work on the town’s greenway. McCondichie said the city has applied for a $125,000 grant for the project.

He said more work had been done on the cemetery, ball park and the site of the town’s first school.

The St. Nicholas food festival will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. at St. Nicholas Church in the parish hall.

For more information, call 674-1325 or visit www.brooksidealabama.com.