ATHOL – Comfortable temperatures and a slight breeze complimented perfect weather Friday for the annual event honoring the area’s senior citizens.

Seniors, volunteers, a local official or two, and hundreds of other people gathered at Silver Lake Park in Athol to enjoy hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, ice cream and live music.

“This is our 16th Annual North Quabbin Senior Community Picnic,” said Cathy Savoy, executive director of Athol’s Council on Aging. “We did go on hiatus during COVID, so we missed out on two years of it and we’re back. This is one of our biggest years; people are ready to come out. It’s been such an enjoyable event. The community and volunteers pull together and it just flourishes every year.”

The food was grilled by members of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office. According to Savoy, the sheriff’s office volunteers cook up around 275 burgers during the two hours of the picnic, as well as grilling 200 or more hot dogs.

“They joined us about seven years ago, so they really took a huge burden off of us, off of our volunteers,” said Savoy. “They’ve been a great complement, and their farm program has always been a part of it.”

In addition, Quabbin Valley Healthcare contributes more than 100 pounds of potato salad. The Friends of the Athol Council on Aging sell raffle tickets and the Athol Cultural Council provides a grant which covers the entertainment. Savoy estimated that some 250 people show up each year for the annual picnic.

Savoy, who has been with the town for 18 years, said the idea for the yearly picnic “came from a previous job, where I had a large role in bringing seniors together. I just thought, we’ve got a beautiful venue; we want to showcase it and bring people together.”

Assisting Savoy in coordinating the event, as well as helping with other COA projects throughout the year, is Program Coordinator Celeste Weymeyer.

“She spent an immense amount of time putting this together, along with Martha Patel,” said Savoy. “We’re a small staff and we all stick together to make this happen.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@aol.com.