The parish festival dates back to 1946. The first year it was held at Naperdak Hall picnic grounds. The following year the festival moved to bare dirt and dust of what is now the current St Clare Parish barbecue area.  The glorious Sunday chicken barbecue drew in the crowds bringing in over 2,000 people. The men of the parish collaborated as they built a pit in the dirt, lined it with bricks and covered the affair with a grill. Pat Ryan was the first general overseer of the crew of the parishioners. Dom Rotolo, owner of Mission City Lumber Company, was chief bean cooker who brought scraps from the lumberyard to start the fire at 2 a.m. LeRoy Pasquinelli created the basting sauce for the chicken and the garlic bread. The Pastor would come out and preside Mass for the men in the wee hours of the morning so they could remain vigilant at the pit.