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Church volunteers' annual baking real holiday treat Saturday
By LINDA M. LINONIS
campbell
Linda Livosky reigns as “queen of the kolachi” at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church.
Her fellow bakers bestowed the title on the coordinator of the Cookie Walk, an annual fundraiser at the church.
The experienced baker, who oversees the production of some 1,200 kolachi, acknowledged she had a rocky start to the experience as a 19-year-old bride.
“My mom and grandmother always had baked,” Livosky said. “I had never made kolachi before.”
She got a Slovak-American cookbook. “It wasn’t specific on the details,” she said, so she didn’t know to divide the dough. She made one huge kolachi of questionable appeal.
But that was in 1960. Livosky, a 54-year church member, said she’s learned a lot since then. “We have a good time doing this,” she said of the baking experience.
For nearly two weeks, the ladies and men of the church gather on different days for hours at time in St. John’s kitchen to prepare for the four-hour sale. It will take place Saturday from noon to 2 p.m.
“It’s fun, and we enjoy the fellowship,” Livosky said. Volunteers number 10 to 20, depending on who is available. The Rev. Andrew Nelko, pastor, has pitched in by operating the dough machine.
The serious side of the event is twofold. It is a fundraiser for the church, and it keeps the Christmas baking tradition alive, Livosky said.
She is concerned that “no one is learning” in the younger generation how to make the traditional foods. The church bakers realize it is a different time than when they were young married women, noting many women work today.
Livosky said she and the other volunteers continue the Cookie Walk “for the church.” They bake about 1,200 kolachi. Livosky said that takes about 350 pounds of nuts and 500 pounds of flour. Working as a team, the bakers turn out about 25 rolls at a time. For each batch, the process from start to finish takes about two hours. After the kolachi cools, the men wrap them.
Audrey Chengelis said the church has been sponsoring the Christmas sale since the early 1980s; it also has one near Easter.
“It’s about spreading the culture,” she said of baking traditional Christmas goodies.
Chengelis also underscored the idea that the fundraiser benefits the church treasury. Funds also are used to send about 50 children to St. Vladimir Camp near Farmdale; donate to Neighborhood Ministries; provide food for the needy; help support St. Tikhons Orthodox Theological Seminary in Waymart, Pa.; and send donations to two orphanages in Belarus in Eastern Europe.
A retired nurse, Sonja Harvischak has been a member of St. John for more than 50 years and volunteers on the baking crew. “I love doing this. It’s like therapy, not work,” she said.
A lifetime church member, Monica Vansuch said she volunteers and “does everything and anything.” She said “it must be genetically in the blood” because her parents, Mike and Mary Vansuch, were devoted to the church. Her husband, Nicholas, helps wrap the rolls.
Another lifetime member, Debbie Zelinsky, said though she’s still working, she likes to volunteer and has done so for about 20 years. “I’ve made friends and like the camaraderie,” she said, adding “I want to help the church.”
Marlene and Bob Graban of Livonia, Mich., time their visit to his father, Emil Graban, so that she can pitch in at the church where he is a member. “I saw it in the bulletin and wanted to learn,” she said.
The oldest volunteers, who are in their 80s, are Sue Kennedy and Helen Colaluca. Kennedy said the she “likes the togetherness of the work that’s fun.”