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MANVILLE: Mother-daughter team makes festival a success

By Mary Ellen Day, Special Writer
   The 44th annual Sacred Heart Summer Festival was a success, thanks to a mother-and-daughter team.
   Maribeth Thomaszfski, organizer and chairwoman of the festival, and her mother, Dolores Serra, kitchen chairwoman, both worked to make the annual festival successful.
   They had many volunteers who came out to help and volunteer their time to work at the festival games, rides or in food preparation.
   ”We had good volunteers that worked hard,” Ms. Thomaszfski said.
   Ms. Serra made sure all the food was prepared fresh daily and kept everything running smoothly in the kitchen.
   A little disappointed because of the weather, Ms. Thomaszfski said, “The games were a little slow because the two nights, Thursday and Saturday, it rained. We were able to reopen the food stands, but the games we couldn’t reopen and the rides we couldn’t reopen. There was nothing we could do with the rain, thunder and lightning.”
   Office of Emergency Management officials met with Ms. Thomaszfski earlier in the day, and they made a plan to make sure everyone was safe.
   According to Ms. Thomaszfski, when the storm hit, they got everyone into the church quickly, and no one got hurt. They stayed in the church for about 40 minutes, then came back outside and reopened the food.
   Ms. Serra thought the festival went well.
   ”It went well considering the weather that we had to work with,” she said. “We managed to get the food sold, and there wasn’t much left except the pierogis because of being shut down, and people could not be there.”
   She added, “The help was there, but we always need a little bit more. It was good, and it went smoothly for me this year, and it took a lot of weight off my shoulders. Everything went nice.”
   The festival was held the end of July on the church grounds on Filak Street. Known for its Polish food, it usually draws a crowd of more than 10,000 people each year.
   The festival takes months of preparation, particularly the food. Volunteers made 1,800 dozen — 21,600 — pierogis. There were 264 pounds of butter, 520 pounds of homemade noodles, 180 pounds of sausage, 1,000 pounds of kielbasa, 230 pounds of chicken fingers, 330 pounds of French fries, 5,000 pounds of potatoes, 2,000 pounds of onions, 775 pounds of cabbage, 780 pounds of ground for stuffed cabbage, 75 gallons of sauerkraut, 240 dozen eggs and 300 pounds of flour.
   Approximately 70 dozen hard rolls were used. In addition, 6,400 stuffed cabbages, 30,000 potato pancakes, 639 pounds of raw dough or 1,740 individual pizza fritzes, 400 hamburgers and 40 pounds of hot dogs were served.