Members of the Quakake Volunteer Fire Company held a picnic onJuly 23 at the Quakake Legion Grove to celebrate the company's 75th anniversary.

The event was preceded by a firetruck parade at 3 p.m. that covered 15 miles through Grier City, Hometown and Quakake. The picnic itself featured grilled food and lawn games for people to enjoy, as well as multiple live music acts. Prizes were also available in the form of 50/50 tickets and door prizes, including decorations, shirts and coolers.Among the music acts were the Frackville band Local Tourist. Made up of four boys from the area, three in high school and one in college, the band was the first to perform at the picnic, covering classics like "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival and "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.The band's lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Brendan Bennett of Quakake, said that performing at the event was a tremendous opportunity for Local Tourist."It meant taking our band to a new level of value and seriousness, seeing as how the crowd was over 150 people. The gig gave us more popularity in the community and has landed us some other gigs, so I'm glad we got to play there," Bennett said.The two music acts that followed Local Tourist were folk singer Gene Morrison, a former Quakake resident, and Hometown native Cody Sassaman.The picnic's co-chairwomen, Paula Konsavage and Loretta Witkowski, said that 160 people came out to enjoy the picnic.