SENATE RESOLUTION 65

(By Senators Romano, Facemire, Lindsay, Unger, and Jeffries)

[Introduced March 3, 2020]

Designating the West Virginia State Folk Festival as the home of the official site of the West Virginia State Pepperoni Roll Championship.

Whereas, Girl Scout Cadettes Kendra Fox and Kaydee Martin of Gilmer County Troop 10123 recommend that the West Virginia State Folk Festival would be an excellent venue to establish the Official West Virginia State Pepperoni Roll Championship given the festival’s focus on truly West Virginia traditions; and

Whereas, The West Virginia State Folk Festival was established in 1950 by Dr. Patrick Gainer “to preserve the remnants of West Virginia traditional life and culture to the end that citizens may appreciate and respect the achievements of their forbears,” and the festival invites pepperoni roll enthusiasts to annually showcase their talents; and

Whereas, The West Virginia State Folk Festival is held in Gilmer County, located in the heart of West Virginia, with thousands of attendees from all over the state, country, and world; and

Whereas, The West Virginia State Folk Festival highlights West Virginia cultural traditions such as storytelling, folk music, quilting talents, square dancing, food, and much more; and

Whereas, The pepperoni roll has been identified to be a West Virginia delicacy that dates back into traditional life and culture in West Virginia’s coal mining communities when Italian immigrants moved into north central West Virginia to work in the mines; and

Whereas, In 1987, the pepperoni roll was saved by the intervention of West Virginia’s United States Senatorial Representatives, Jay Rockefeller and Robert C. Byrd, to allow its continued production and sale to the public without unnecessary oversight and regulation; and

Whereas, Beginning on the third Thursday of June each year, the West Virginia State Folk Festival shall be the official home of the West Virginia State Pepperoni Roll Championship in recognition of its contributions to the history of the great State of West Virginia; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate:

That the Senate hereby designates the West Virginia State Folk Festival as the home of the official site of the West Virginia State Pepperoni Roll Championship.