Augusta’s first ever Pagan Pride Day held on Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Lake Olmstead gazebo attracted more than 250 people and collected more than 340 pounds of food for It's Spooky to be Hungry.

The festival, which featured a variety of workshops including Wicca 101, Kitchen Witchery and Ask the Wizard, was created by Joseph Zuchowski, a Wiccan high priest who resides in Augusta, and his wife, Jezibell Anat, who is also a local Wiccan high priestess.

Along with 343 pounds of food, the festival also collected about $100 for the local food pantry, Anat said.

“Pagan Pride is an international organization and there are about 120 events worldwide,” Anat said in the Sept. 30 cover story, "The Wiccan way," in the Metro Spirit. “There is a new one this year in the Philippines of all places, there are several in South America, there are a couple in Europe, some in Canada and 41 out of 50 states in the United States.”

Anat hopes to make Augusta's Pagan Pride Day an annual event.