Reunion recreates picnic held in 1935

More than 100 Italian families celebrated their ancestry at Renton’s Philip Arnold Park Saturday. The gathering included food and music — both Italian, of course.

Former Renton resident Crystal Ainardi organized the picnic. The 28-year-old WSU student’s goal was to reunite the Italian families who came to Renton in the early 1900s. Many of these families were pictured in a photo from a 1935 picnic at McDonald’s Grove — now thought to be Cedar Grove — on Maple Valley Highway.

Ainardi’s great grandparents were one of Renton’s early Italian families. They came to Renton in 1906 from Mattie, north Italy.

Renton’s Italian families once held frequent picnics. Ainardi said she hopes Saturday’s picnic will be the first of many.