Puskarcik with Gov. DeWine in 2019 when her brother, Ronald, who diedin the Vietnam War, was honored with a road named after him.
In 1970, Sandra Puskarcik began her career hosting events – she was 11 at the time. That was the year Puskarcik hosted her first Carnival Against Muscular Dystrophy, a mail order kit promoted by comedian Jerry Lewis designed for kids to host their own neighborhood fundraiser events.
Puskarcik’s carnivals became big affairs, spreading across multiple houses and exciting the neighborhood. That would unknowingly start her toward a career as director of community engagement for the City of Dublin, where she became a key architect in growing the Dublin Irish Festival from a few hundred guests to a crowd of 100,000.
“All these basic things that you do in events, no matter how big or how small,” Puskarcik says, “I started doing that in 1970.”
Those first carnival events, featuring everything from games to pony rides, became important community gatherings. At the time, the carnivals meant much more to Puskarcik and her family. Her older brother, Ronald, had enlisted in the U.S. Marines during the Vietnam War and was killed in action in 1968.
It deeply affected her family, Puskarcik says. The carnivals created an opportunity for joy and refocusing, especially knowing the money raised would support the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
“It was somewhat healing to be able to do something,” she says. “And we were doing something for good, not just for ourselves in terms of turning a corner of emotions but being able to give back to such a worthy cause.”
Seeing the power of those events provided an early sense of purpose for Puskarcik, one that has guided her ever since.
She turned her creativity toward writing but never escaped events, happening into jobs that combined the two interests.
“That whole creative element and the passion that came from it started from a tragedy and just finding a way to deal and then heal,” she says. “What really drives me is that I knew that it worked for me and for others around me. How lucky I’ve been to be able to find jobs my whole
career in the community that, without knowing my story, supported this journey.”
When the City of Dublin created a position around 1990 that combined communications and special events, it was a natural fit.
Dublin had recently routed hotel motel tax money toward the nascent Dublin Irish Festival, and the council told Puskarcik that they wanted the festival to become the premier event for the city. The event’s humble beginnings came from the community-organized Dublin Irish Celebration. When Puskarcik was hired, the festival attracted maybe 500 people.
Just two weeks after starting her new job, the city sent Puskarcik to the Milwaukee Irish Fest for inspiration. Begun in 1981, the four-day festival was attracting some 80,000 people at the time.
“I just remember sitting there at some point crying, thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what they want me to do,’” Puskarcik says. “But I knew I had the support of city council. I knew I had the support of the city manager.”
Today, the Dublin Irish Festival has grown to sit beside the Milwaukee festival as one of the top Irish festivals in North America.
“She always had a vision that was maybe even beyond what some of those early people could have imagined for what those events were going to be,” says Alison LeRoy, director of community events for the City of Dublin. “That was something that kind of drove everybody and got everybody else on board to see what that vision could be.”
During her 17 years as festival director, Puskarcik oversaw the addition of the Emerald Arts Isle, an expanded Wee Folk Area and the addition of Celtic rock – including the initially controversial Flogging Molly. That band’s punk-inspired performance was in turning point that broadened the range of acts included at the festival.
“Irish music isn’t just one kind; Irish music has so many personalities,” she says. “It was a great thing to be able to do that, and then that’s what attracts more people and when you start attracting more people, then you have the ability to start doing some other kinds of things.”
During her time with the city, Puskarcik worked to develop area events that better represented the community. As more residents began to stay in Dublin for holidays, she helped to create an Independence Day Celebration that provided justification for sticking around.
Puskarcik also worked to coordinate the introduction of The Memorial Tournament, which is not a city event.
“(It’s) an event that really put us on the map – I mean who doesn’t know Jack Nicklaus?” she says. “The pillars of the Memorial Tournament absolutely mirror the pillars of Dublin in terms of family, health, giving back to the community.”
Throughout her time with the city, Puskarcik maintained her initial drive to do things with a purpose. Building up the community was important, and she never forgets her brother Ronald.
“Our whole family felt like we had to carry the flag for him,” she says. “We never wanted him to be lost or forgotten.”
When Dublin published a book on the city’s history in 2004, Dublin’s Journey, the lack of a Veteran’s memorial stuck out. Puskarcik, among others, set out to change that.
A committee was created to pursue the creation of a Veteran’s memorial. After extensive research and close collaboration with the Dublin Arts Council (DAC), it became apparent that just one monument wouldn’t be enough.
“When you’re doing it the Dublin way, just one singular experience was not going to be what was the best for Dublin,” she says.
The end result was the creation of the Grounds of Remembrance in Dublin Veteran’s Park. The approximately one-acre park, located beside the Dublin library in Historic Dublin, features a POW-MIA/KIA Memorial, Recognition Walk, Memory Wall and more.
One of her last large projects while working for the city was a collaboration with the DAC to bring an exhibition of Vietnam War photos by Eddie Adams to Dublin. Adams documented the tragedy of the war up close, most famously in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo popularly known as Saigon Execution.
Since the exhibition premiered in New York, Adams had died, but Puskarcik reached out directly to his widow, Alyssa.
“I had to say to her, “we’re a small community but the approach that the Dublin Arts Council takes to anything is top notch,’” Puskarcik says.
It worked. Vietnam Veterans and Veteran organizations provided input that helped to ensure the difficult material was displayed appropriately. The exhibition was dedicated at Dublin’s 2015 Memorial Day Ceremony.
“I have never been able to walk through the exhibit myself,” Puskarcik says, “but I know that it was important to present.”
Even after retiring from the city, Puskarcik was drawn back in to work in support of Veterans. State Rep. Jim Hughes approached her to recommend she apply to a position with the Ohio Department of Veterans Services (ODVS). She interviewed in the morning and was offered a job that afternoon.
Despite not being a Veteran herself, her coworkers were moved by the story of her brother and her passion for women’s Veterans issues.
Working with the ODVS, she contributed to planning of events such as the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and the Ohio Women Veterans Conference. That role allowed Puskarcik to continue what she had started when she first hosted carnivals in her backyard: organizing events with purpose.
“They’re role models for young women entering the military,” Puskarcik says. “To be able to support that group of women in Ohio is pretty powerful and pretty gratifying.”
Cameron Carr is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at ccarr@cityscenemediagroup.com.
