A Town Displays Its Diversity

The First Annual Saugus Community Festival draws several hundred residents to Saugus Middle High School

By Mark E. Vogler

Last Saturday’s visit to the Saugus Middle-High School was a fun family event for Joseline Ramirez and her three young sons. The boys got to eat pizza and mac and cheese, play a Spanish version of Bingo, listen to some live music, watch performances and see a side of Saugus they have never seen before – a diverse town of many ethnic cultures and backgrounds representing more than three dozen nations. They were among a crowd estimated at 500 people who turned out for the First Annual Saugus Community Festival, which featured more than three dozen flags representing the native countries of immigrant citizens now residing in Saugus.

Ramirez’s sons JJ Mendez, 10, and Jeremy Mendez, 4, painted on paper squares that were later installed in a giant wall mural made up of 250 individual paintings from people in the community who sought to express themselves about their town while reflecting on the diverse cultural identities and multigenerational stories of the Saugus Community. One-year-old Jaed Mendez just soaked it all in as he relaxed in his mother’s arms as she walked around the ground floor of the Middle High School.

“We had a good time,” Ramirez said of the few hours they spent at the festival, which merged two previous events: the Saugus Cultural Festival and Saugus 411.

“All of the people were really kind and nice. It was a lot of fun,” she said.

Ramirez and her husband Jeremias Mendez immigrated from Guatemala about 15 years ago. They have lived in Saugus for the last three years.

Ramirez said the day was definitely an entertaining one for her sons. But as a parent and a newcomer to Saugus, she called the day a rewarding one that enabled her to get better acquainted with the town and what it has to offer its residents.

“There are a lot of things going on in town – things that can help you. If we didn’t come to the festival today, we wouldn’t know about it,” Ramirez said. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff that I haven’t seen before – many programs that I didn’t know about.”

While visiting the various tables staffed by community organizations, churches, various groups, town agencies and schools, Ramirez said, she discovered new educational opportunities available in the community for her children. “I didn’t know about these schools,” she said after visiting the tables offering background information about the Pioneer Charter School of Science based in Saugus and Northeast Metro Tech in Wakefield.

“These are schools they could go to, but you have to apply for it,” she said.

Having both schools represented at the first Saugus Community Festival was important, according to Saugus School Committee member Joseph “Dennis” Gould, who is also a co-chair of the Saugus Cultural Council. “I love the fact that we have kids from the Pioneer Charter School and The Voke here today, helping out as volunteers,” Gould said.

“They’re part of this community. They’re part of our diversity, and I would like to see more diversity at future festivals,” he said.

It was Gould who first suggested the idea of a Saugus Cultural Festival two years ago upon becoming a member of the Saugus Cultural Council. He was also a strong supporter of the Cultural Festival merger with Saugus 411 – an event aimed at introducing Saugus newcomers to a wide range of services available in the community and also to provide longtime town residents an opportunity to get reacquainted with those services.

Former Selectman Corinne Riley said she was impressed with the large turnout for the Community Festival and also credited the merger between the Saugus Cultural Festival and Saugus 411 for the event’s success. “Combining the two events was a wonderful idea,” said Riley, who was the driving force behind the nifty program, which had three previous well-attended Saturdays at the Saugus Middle High School in recent years (2022, 2023 and 2025), offering Saugus newcomers a comprehensive introduction to the town for newcomers and a “refresher course” on what’s available and where to go for longtime town residents.

“I think we probably got over 500 people here today. There was a huge turnout to see what Saugus has to offer in services as well as the incredible talent of people who come from many different backgrounds,” Riley said.

“Just a multitude of people helped out this year to make this a great success, building on the past events. I’m really looking forward to doing this again next year. Each time we have it, it just gets bigger and better,” she said.

Saugus Cultural Council Co-Chair Victoria “Tori” Darnell said she was pleased that Saugus residents who immigrated from countries scattered across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America participated in this year’s festival. Darnell is already looking ahead on ways to improve the festival in future years.

“One of my hopes for next year is to open up the festival for local artists to sell their crafts and goods,” Darnell said.

“And we’ll use new performers next year and make sure that we represent the different cultures of Saugus,” she said.