Bazaar days in parishes

In years past, families looked forward to attending such gatherings, usually held in the summer or fall. They were often viewed as a time to get together with fellow parishioners, meet new people, reminisce with old friends, and enjoy a day of fun and home-cooked food.

Those fetes often took an extraordinary amount of planning and volunteer work to be successful, however, and that has led to their being dropped by some parishes. The Evangelist searched out some churches that still hold annual bazaars and festivals to find out what keeps them going.

Going strong

The bazaar committee is made up of a chairperson and co-chair, and subcommittee heads in charge of each specific event, such as crafts, raffle, rides, games, etc.

According to Mary Gebo, this year's chair, it takes about five months of planning to arrive at the date of the bazaar with everything in place.

"We usually become active during January," she said, adding that the crafters who make homemade articles actually begin making their items in September of the year before.

Months of effort

The committee rents tents from a supplier who puts them up, but committee volunteers are responsible for setting everything else up, including wiring electricity, tables, booths and chairs, and then taking them down.

Ms. Gebo calls this the "construction and destruction phases," and applauds the tireless efforts of the 100 or so volunteers who get this work done, year after year.

St. Alphonsus netted about $6,500 after expenses to benefit St. Mary/St. Alphonsus School.

The berries

Kay A. Connolly, chairperson for both festivals, said that the parish decided to have a second festival "just to get together and have a parish social."

The core committee decided that they would need approximately 25 volunteers to implement and coordinate the various committees needed. Some of the work involved soliciting local businesses for donations of raffle items, such as gift certificates to local restaurants, tickets to a Giants football game and certificates for various performances at SPAC.

Details

In addition, each committee chair looked for people to volunteer to set up tables and chairs (and take them down afterwards), decorate, cook, serve and be announcers. There were booths that sold items and booths that provided games. It all culminated in a meal shared by all.

"We have a sit-down supper with entertainment," she said. "This year, our theme was that of an old-fashioned ice cream social. We decorated in a red-and-white-stripe and straw-hat motif, with emphasis on a turn-of-the-century [1900] atmosphere. We even had some men volunteer to sing as a barbershop quartet. They were very good! We ended up in a big sing-along. It was wonderful!"

Effort pays off

Both years, the parish raised $8,500. This year, Ms. Connolly said, the money will be used to purchase TVs and VCRs for the religious education classrooms.

Approximately 300 people attended, and Ms. Connolly noted that the organizers noticed an increase in the attendance of younger families this year.

Working together

"We begin our planning in January for our bazaar in June," he said. "I always begin with a 'Things to do list' that usually is made up of such categories as tents, police, gambling permit, etc. I begin by contacting these people early, and getting all the ordering and reserving done and out of the way."

Mr. Tully told The Evangelist that their parish bazaar requires the volunteer efforts of "a couple hundred core volunteers" who act as committee heads and staff such booths as the food tent, hospitality, children's tent, children's rides, gambling tent, raffle committee, public relations, bake sale, book raffle and trash-and-treasure committee.

Early on in the planning stage, the chairmen meet with the committee heads and decide how many volunteers each committee will need. Then each committee head becomes responsible for getting the volunteers.

"By the time we are about a month away from the event," Mr. Tully said, "each component is fully staffed and the committee heads all know where they are going and what they are doing."

Many events

Besides providing traffic control, the police department also supplies bagpipe players for entertainment.

"Each year, our attendance gets larger and larger," Mr. Tully said, with the proceeds (about $28,000 this year) benefitting the school.

"Each year, we shoot for a profit of $25,000," he said. "For the last three years, we have been able to beat that."

(07-26-01) [[In-content Ad]]