By Mary Ellen Day, Special Writer
The 46th annual Sacred Heart Summer Festival begins Tuesday, and all the preparations are well underway for the first one under the newly formed Christ the Redeemer parish.
The event will be held on the Sacred Heart church grounds on Filak Street. The festival is well known for its Polish food made fresh daily and usually draws a crowd of more than 10,000 people each year.
The festival begins Tuesday from 6 to 10 p.m. and runs each night through Saturday, Aug 2. Saturday night, the festival is from 5 to 10 p.m. with the Saturday night Mass changed to 4 p.m.
The Rev. Stan Slaby said, "The reason why we are keeping (the name of) Sacred Heart annual Summer Festival (is) to keep the tradition and let people know that changing the parish did not change the good traditions that we are having in Manville. For many people, if the name was changed to Christ the Redeemer, they would not know."
Maribeth Thomaszfski has chaired the longtime event and is looking forward to another successful festival. The volunteers have been working for months making pierogis, which totaled 1,742 dozen or 20,904 individual pierogis, and they are expected to completely sell out.
The polish platter is back with one stuffed cabbage, one pierogi, cabbage and noodles, kielbasa and bread for the price of $8. There are also the favorite pizza fritz, which are made fresh. The dough was donated by Manville Pizza.
Also prepared is 520 pounds of noodles for the cabbage and noodles. The sausage and kielbasa is homemade from the Union Pork Store.
The event also is sponsored by the Polish Slavic Credit Union.
People come from all over and stand in lines for hours for the potato pancakes and the Polish platter. Because patrons have to wait in line for hours, Ms. Thomaszfski said the ticket number system used last year to order the potato pancakes was successful and will be used again. Customers take a number, then are called for their orders. There will be a different color ticket every night.
A permanent building was built on the property for the making of the popular potato pancakes. Ms. Thomaszfski said they do about 64,000 potato pancakes during the festival.
There are rides for the kids and fun for the whole family. Game stands include the arts and crafts stand, cake stand, water game and more. All games are $1, and prizes will be for just one win. The cake stand is 50 cents a game and is all homemade goodies.
There is a nightly 50-50 and the super cash, which will be drawn Saturday at 10 p.m.
Polish night is Wednesday night and features a band, Mirage, with all Polish music, and a DJ will be providing music Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The Rev. Slaby is excited about having the parish community come together.
"Christ the Redeemer parish invites all our citizens of Manville and parishioners to our annual summer festival," he said. "This year is very unique as it is the first summer festival as Christ the Redeemer parish. Through the festival, we want to strengthen our unity in our Catholic community, and we try as Christ the Redeemer parish to preserve the best of our traditions that we were able to develop over the years."
According to Ms. Thomaszfski, the cash raffle is expected to be more than $20,000 because, with the combining of the two churches, a lot more tickets have already been sold.
Christ the King School also will have a table for interested new students and will be selling some items to benefit the school.
People still can volunteer to help by bringing homemade baked items for the nightly cake stand to the festival that night or dropping them off after 8 a.m. in the church auditorium.
It takes more than 100 volunteers daily to run the event. Kitchen help is needed for making the stuffed cabbage fresh daily each morning. Volunteers also are peeling potatoes and onions, others are selling tickets, working the stand and games and cooking.
Anyone over 18 can volunteer. Call the church at 908-725-0072 or visit website www.ctrmanville.com.
Advance food tickets are being sold for $20 for $25 worth. Get tickets up until Tuesday by coming to the church office or purchasing them at this weekend’s Masses at both the Sacred Heart and Christ the King worship sites.
"Thank you to all those benefactors who helped make this annual summer festival so special and so unique," the Rev. Slaby said. "This year, we have a lot of great food prepared for you and great music, and it will definitely make you satisfied. The Polish platter and the potato pancakes, we believe, will be the hit of the summer festival. So please stop by from Tuesday to Saturday and don’t forget to purchase your raffle tickets."
Looking ahead, the Rev. Slaby invited everyone back for the Oktoberfest on Sept. 19 and 20. More details will be released later.

