4 parishes now combine their traditions at Campbell fest

By JOE GORMAN

jgorman@vindy.com

CAMPBELL

Combine four churches into one parish and you get a lot of food choices come festival time.

Such is the case with Christ The Good Shepherd Church on Porter Avenue, whose annual festival got underway Thursday and concludes today.

Besides the traditional fare of hot dogs or hamburgers, those attending could sample Italian, Spanish and Eastern European foods. All homemade.

There’s pizza, Italian fries, pepperoni rolls, elephant ears, haluski, palacincki (crepes), pastelillos and stuffed potatoes.

“It’s an ethnic smorgasbord,” said parish member Ruby Peltz, who also is volunteering at the festival’s auction.

The parish was formed when the St. John The Baptist, St. Joseph The Provider, St. Lucy and St. Rosa de Lima churches joined to form one church under the Diocese of Youngstown’s church-consolidation plan.

The festival took place on the grounds of St. Joseph The Provider and kicked off Saturday with an outdoor polka Mass.

As Mass was beginning, Carmel Opencar and Lucy Cioffi were preparing the Italian food for the festival-goers who were expected later in the evening. Opencar said they began preparations for the food about two weeks ago, stocking up on supplies and getting things ready.

Everything is made fresh daily, including 30 to 40 pizzas, she said. When asked what is done with any leftover pizza, she laughed. “We seldom have that,” she said.

Opencar and Cioffi say they like the eclectic cuisine that is offered at the festival.

“It’s just an ethnic thing,” Cioffi said.

They both said a good aspect of the merger is they get to worship regularly now with friends from the community who went to the different churches when they were separate.

“Now, we get to see them, and the camaraderie is good,” Cioffi said.

Next to Cioffi and Opencar, Mary Ann Evanovich also was preparing for the evening and getting the Eastern European fare ready. She said they go through about five pounds of flour daily to make the palacincki, and everything is also made fresh daily. She said she enjoys the festival because of the way it allows the different cultures of the parish to mesh together.

“I had a wonderful time. God was good with us,” Evanovich said. “It’s a community.”

The parish members who volunteer for the festival make it work, she said, and that goes from the older members to the younger ones, such as high-school students in the parish’s CCD program.

“It’s just awesome how everyone helps,” Evanovich said.

Next to Evanovich, Aida Pacheco and Nancy Pagan were setting up for the evening. They said it takes a couple of days before the festival to get everything ready to make their pastelillos, or fried meat pies. They were very popular when the festival opened, Pacheco said.

“I thought we did really good for the first night,” Pacheco said.

They have about seven or eight people who help prepare the food for them, Pacheco said.

Both said they also were looking forward to having some of the food made by their counterparts. Pagan said she was looking forward to the homemade pizza and pepperoni rolls that were being offered.

Evanovich said she will be sampling the other foods as well, especially the pastelillos.

“I just love those,” Evanovich said.