Nathan races his brother, Keegan, down a bouncy house on Saturday at Maria’s Days. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
If there’s one Border City family that knows how to pull out all the stops when it comes to throwing a party, it’s the Kokonas family, but the party-planning crown has to go to Maria, who recently brought one of Greece’s largest national holidays to Lloydminster.
In honour of the national holiday, Maria’s Days was hosted at Spiro’s Family Restaurant last Thursday through Saturday.
The three-day event included a night market, a date night/movie night, a car show, kids’ bouncy houses, face painting, and live music.
“Aug. 15 is a Greek holiday, as well as my name day,” said Kokonas. “So, in Greece, all of the Marias will celebrate on Aug. 15, that’s our day. Of course, I love to celebrate all things me, whether it be my birthday in January or my name day in August, it’s a perfect beautiful halfway point, and it’s time to celebrate.”
Thursday’s night market featured 42 local vendors with music from Tom Hall, and according to Kokonas, roughly 1,000 people made their way through the market that night.
“The heat that night was nice, but my grandkids were running around handing out bottles of water to people,” she said. “Everyone was just having a great time.”
Friday’s date night featured a prime rib dinner and music by Daryl Amundrud on the patio before the movie Mamma Mia was shown drive-in style in the restaurant’s parking lot.
Saturday featured a car show by members of the Just Kruzin’ Car Club and face painting and bouncy houses for the kids.
“This is all about community involvement,” she said. “Our community stood with us through COVID, and throughout all of the years we’ve been in business, our community has been for us, so we always want to recognize it was our community that has made us who we are today, so we always want to give back to them. It’s too important.
“Dad’s going to be 80 this January and he’s working still, mom helps, two of my grandkids are sitting right here with us; we’re a true family restaurant.”
