Social Ocean Luau Draws Big, Festive Crowd

About 200 people showed up Thursday night for Christopher's Family Restaurant's Social Ocean Luau, the last 125th Birthday Block Party fundraiser.

At about 7 p.m., there were 130 tickets collected or sold at the entrance to the restaurant's parking lot on Winter Street, which had been roped off and filled with tables, chairs, a buffet line, outdoor tiki bar, and a small dance floor covered with sand from WWII Memorial Park's Social Ocean. Against the building's wall, The South Street Band performed pop and rock tunes for the crowd and, eventually, a small group of dancing revelers.

A group of volunteers hurried to bring another 40 chairs to keep up with the crowd. "We didn't expect this many people," said Al Beauparlant, co-chair of the 125th Birthday Block Party Committee, which put on a series of five fundraisers during the last month to help pay for the $70,000 block party coming Aug. 29. 

A happy milestone was announced by Matt Moylan, owner of Ciro's Tavern and fundraising chair on the Block Party Committee, in prelude to the evening's luau themed performance. "So... I'm the belly dancer," Moylan joked. After a pause for the crowd's laughs, he gave them the real news about the fundraising total, last reported at about $60,000. "This morning we pushed that up to about $65,000," Moylan said. 

A $1,000 donation from the Woonsocket Rotary Club helped them reach that mark, Moylan said. 

Beauparlant took a moment to thank the city's DPW crew for their hard work getting the city ready for the block party this past week. "These are the front line warriors of this city," he said. 

Mayor Leo Fontaine said that like prior fundraisers, which honored specific Woonsocket communities, the Luau was held in honor of Woonsocket's business community, including the bi-local partnership of the Blackstone Valley Independent Business Alliance and the Northern RI Chamber to promote locally owned businesses. Fontaine praised the local business community's efforts to aid the city during tough times.

With that, the evening turned to the performance of the actual belly dancer, Maria Meraklis of Pawtucket, with Fontaine lending some guitar licks to the band's accompaniment,  followed by more music and dancing.

The free Aug. 29 block party runs from 4 to 11 p.m., with the Parisian Arc de Triomphe replica in Monument Square as its centerpiece. One half-mile from Monument Square to Market Square will be packed with 10 acts on each of 12 stages, and 28 performances altogether. Eleven bands will play non-stop from 7 to 10 p.m., complemented by light shows, performance artists, and vendors.