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Mostly Cloudy Church fair creates one big family
Early last week, John Kilikci and his 3-year-old son, Emrah, saw the rides being set up in the Blessed Sacrament Church parking lot, just down the block from their McKeon Avenue home. Patiently they waited until Thursday evening, when the second annual Family Festival began.
Emrah was one of the first kids to hit the rides at the four-day festival, which ran from Aug. 2-5. Kilikci, a 15-year resident of Valley Stream, said throughout the week his son kept asking, “Is it Thursday yet?”
The Kilikcis were just two of the thousands of people who attended the fair, open to all church parishioners, Valley Stream residents and anyone else just looking for a good time.
“The whole thing is about community coming together and being a family,” said Maria Sorrentino, chairwoman of the festival planning committee. She has been a parishioner at the church for 31 years and said preparations for the event began shortly after last year’s inaugural fair ended.
More than 200 parishioners, from teens to senior citizens, volunteered their time at the fair. Whether they worked all four nights, or gave a few hours whenever they could, Sorrentino said the success of the fair relies on the volunteers. “Without them, this is not possible,” she said.
One of the volunteers was 13-year-old Justin Cortez, a church member and student at South High School. In addition to needing volunteer hours for confirmation, he said he wanted to help out his church as well. “It’s just fun helping people,” said Cortez, who worked at the children’s games.
The Rev. Peter Dugandzic, pastor of the church, also praised the hard work and dedication of the volunteers.
The addition of games for children was just one of the many changes from last year’s fair. A new ride company was also brought in. Big Ben’s Midway provided a Ferris wheel, swings, slide and many more popular carnival rides. Sorrentino said she was more than impressed with how many rides the company was able to fit into the church parking lot.
On McKeon Avenue, Big Ben’s had some carnival games set up including basketball and a water shoot where guests could win prizes. And another change, instead of ordering food, Blessed Sacrament’s parishioners cooked it all. There was also regular entertainment featuring local acts.
Amanda Berrell, who lives nearby on Rose Avenue, brought her son and niece to the festival. She didn’t know about it until her husband saw the rides being set up, so she decided to check it out. “It’s fun,” she said on the first night as the children played a fishing game. “We’re going to come every night. It’s something to do and it’s right around the block.”
Dugandzic said he wanted everyone to have a good time. The fair also serves as a fundraiser for the church. Dugandzic said there are two ways a parish can raise money — at the doors of the church or through large-scale community events.
While the total hasn’t been tallied yet, he said this year’s fair raised significant funds for the parish.
Dugandzic said that the festival requires a lot of planning, and he was pleased with how smoothly it came together this year. He said thousands of people came to the festival over the four days, with Friday and Saturday being the busiest nights. The only slow night, he said, was Sunday when a storm came through. “If it weren’t for the rain, it would have been completely glitch-free,” he said of the fair.
He wants the festival to remain an annual event each summer, and something that the community looks forward to. “Last year we kicked it off, we started out kind of small and we’ve expanded,” he said. “Year by year we’ll grown and we’ll get better.”
