Miguel Navarro
Staff Writer
The 77th annual Pilgrim Place festival was held last weekend at the Claremont retirement community.
The streets at Pilgrim Place were lined with vendors selling handcrafted items such as jewelry and quilts.
Booths were family-friendly; some featured face painting, chalk drawing and wood painting activities. There was also coin-pressing and crocheting.
Many booths were set up in front of residents’ homes.
“This is really cool,” said Ruben Krikorian, a dad and Claremont resident, who said he appreciated all the kid-friendly features. “It is a nice community feel with nice folks everywhere.”
Vendors also sold furniture, books and paintings,
The homemade goodies booth was popular; it sold jams, fudge, bread and cookies.
Lee Rawley, a Pilgrim Place resident, displayed his handcrafted jewelry.
“This is something that we work on all year long,” Rawley said. “Especially those of us who create things to sell. It is very important to us.”
The event also featured many Tongva artifacts, and honored the Tongva indigenous people who once inhabited the land in the area.
“We’re living on land that belonged to the Tongva indigenous people,” Rawley said. “Here at the Pilgrim Place, we honor that with a wonderful booth.”
Live folk and country music played as the guests enjoyed their lunch.
All proceeds from the festival went to support the Pilgrim Place’s Resident Health and Support Program, which helps the residents stay in their homes and covers unexpected medical expenses.
“This was the first time that the family has come and we were most impressed,” said Sharon Lee, who was in town from Minnesota. “It is a beautiful event and we’re just happy to be here.”
Miguel Navarro can be reached at miguel.navarro@laverne.edu.
Miguel Navarro is a senior journalism major with a concentration in broadcast journalism, and is a staff writer for the Campus Times. He also serves as a broadcaster at the University of La Verne, and he hopes to one day work in sports media.
Kyla Stubbs is a junior photography major and is a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. You can find her work on Instagram.
