PITTSTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- It’s been a tradition in Pittston Township for more than 50 years but this year the Northeast Fair won’t be happening.
The fair benefits the Pittston Township Volunteer Fire Department. Firefighters said there are not enough volunteers to help with the fair and it hasn’t been raising enough money.
"I'm devastated. This is the first time I'm hearing about it. It is very disappointing. My mother and I we go up there. I bring my kids up there and my grandchild,” Kathy Paradis of Wilkes-Barre said.
Paradis said she was already planning on going to the fair with her mom Irene Kubicki.
Kubicki loved seeing the Elvis impersonator there and now she won’t be able to.
“That was my number one singer back in the day, we'd do the dancing and stuff,” Kubicki said.
Harold Whispell of Pittston said he looked forward to the fair every year.
"It's a shame they can't get volunteers to run it like they usually do. It was a staple up there in the township for quite a while,” Whispell said.
“The younger kids think it's always going to be there for them but they don't understand they have to step up and be available to do things like that,” Paradis said.
Instead of having the fair, firefighters tell Newswatch 16 they're going to start having community breakfasts and raffles.
"It’s just generations of things that people should be able to available for people here to enjoy. They take a lot of things out of our area. There's nothing for our kids to do,” Paradis said.
Firefighters have not said their official plans for 2019, but they don’t expect the fair to return then either.