St. Vitus Parish Picnic

St. Vitus Parish hosted another successful summer picnic on Sunday, July 19th at Slovenska Pristava in Harpersfield, Ohio. The event capped months of planning and preparation by picnic committee members, chairman Frank Zitko and master of logistics Stan Kuhar. The festivities officially began with a noon Mass celebrated by pastor Father Joseph Boznar and enhanced by singing led by John Srsen and members of the 9 o’clock choir and the Cerkveni pevski zbor Lira. A delicious and abundant dinner, prepared by many volunteer cooks under the direction of Linda Plecnik and Joe Tavcar, was served in the air conditioned Lausche Hall, providing a respite from the 90+ degree heat, although many guests opted to dine on the picnic tables under the pines. Grilled cevapcici were available later in the day for latecomers and those spending an afternoon at the pool.

The St. Vitus Altar and Rosary Society again sponsored a bake sale, offering a variety of tasty desserts including potica, cakes, breads, brownies, cookies and their own freshly made krofi. A Chinese Raffle of 28 donated items ran throughout the day, as well as several 50/50 raffles. Members of the St. Vitus School Alumni manned a stand selling tee-shirts and decals and advertised membership to former students.

Bartenders did a brisk business selling both hard and soft drinks, while water seemed to be a favorite this year due to the extreme heat. An afternoon ice cream social with a make-your-own-sundae, and a Margarita bar serving the tropical thirst-quencher helped to cool off many of the attendees.

Veseli Godci provided just the right mix of dance music and accompaniment to the day’s many activities. The sweltering heat did nothing to dissuade die-hard polka fans from dancing all afternoon! This year’s entertainment was the Yin Tang Dance Troupe and Connie Zhang’s children acrobats who put on a delightful performance featuring dances from various regions of China.

A last-minute surprise was an auction of a painting by Slovenian artist and world-class calligrapher Loredana Zega, who created it on-site, then donated her work to the picnic. The main raffle of a grand prize of 1,000 culminated with the drawing of winning tickets at day’s end.

 

Author: Ann Zakelj, Photos: Ann Zakelj