October 2, 2006


From : Caroline Pappajohn
Subject: Thanks, gratitude, community.....

To all the loving, dedicated, hard-working, selfless, caring, smart, expert problem-solving, humble and absolutely fabulous Greek Food Festival Volunteers (that’s you!):

You are all amazing and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you for all you did to make this year’s Greek food festival such a wonderful, inviting (to all people, all ages, all backgrounds), warm, lively, successful community event. Personally, I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work side-by-side with you all and to be uplifted by your energy, warmth and love.

- I won’t pretend to capture everything in this email (mostly because I’m too tired to think straight), but I wanted to share some anecdotes that capture the spirit of the weekend and that certainly touched my heart.

- a certain un-named couple – both of whom have been ill for some time and both of whom have volunteered for the past 30+ years for this festival as booth managers – who showed up to see how things were going, and when they noticed that we were, well, a bit short-handed, they donned aprons and gloves and just stepped in for the next 10 hours (both Saturday and Sunday) and brought some much-needed support to the food line and the souvlakia assembly and grilling effort.

- the entire Sunday school contingent (grades 7 and up) who were responsible for getting the food line started, thanks to their awesome prep work on Sunday morning. Then, partly because they were so eager to help and partly because they saw the spirit of service in such abundance around them – they stayed for hours and continued to help in so many ways – from tallying our admission coupons to bussing tables to working behind the food line to re-stocking our beverages.

- Our precious Effie M, who cut onions for over 12 hours a day for 3 days straight so we could eat and serve those amazing salads.

- The unbelievable Cathy/Bob Peterson duo, who have for (many!) years been responsible for producing those beautiful, perfect, consistent and tasty salads. By the way, the second we’d put salads out on the food line, customers would grab them. Cathy and Bill (and Effie) literally worked for hours without a break all day because their salads were in such high demand! ($5 per salad next year?)

- Lulu and Pope – the fact we had ANY food to serve is totally because of their efforts and early mornings (6am!) and amazing wisdom in knowing what to heat, when, what temp, etc. Also, when we ran out of food on Saturday, they deftly whipped up new dishes the rest of the weekend.

- the many volunteers who came at 10am for a 4-hour shift, and, when they saw how busy we were, just decided out of their own selflessness to cancel any other commitments they had that day and stay for 12 hours!

- Ria, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to set up our food line on Friday morning.

- Chris K, who did everything (often at the same time!) all weekend to keep the food line in tact.

- Angelos, who paralleled his talented brother and kept many booths operating smoothly by just jumping in and doing anything required (from making salads to serving loukoumades) – in addition to managing the inside bar.

- Tatiana – who just couldn’t stay away (thank goodness!) and managed the break-down/clean up the entire inside area on Sunday night (and who was reportedly still there after a certain someone skipped out at 10:15pm)

- Tula and Darryl, who took on the auspicious job of running the entire inside food operation – from little details, like putting together the cute lemon/vase center pieces to the ordering of the pans we used to serve our food to who knows what else, because the list of things they did is too long for this email.

- the members of our talented and dedicated Philoptochos, whose months of baking and cooking put smiles on the faces of every customer who was fortunate enough to eat the desserts of their labors.

- Andy V, who was seen deftly carrying pots of hot coffee back and forth across the very long gymnasium from early am to late into the night all weekend so that our guests could be properly caffeinated, Mrs. V, who organized and ran the Orthodox books/icons booth for the 40th (not really sure how many years, but I assume it’s MANY).

- a certain “Doctor” who had no problem running loukoumades trays from the kitchen to the booth when no one else seemed to be around to do it, who was seen after 11pm on Saturday picking up rags, towels, and other supplies off the sticky floor, and who was instrumental in 2 other booths the entire weekend.

- a certain couple who zipped over to the festival after their niece’s wedding (I don’t even think they took the time to go home) and spent the rest of the weekend bussing tables and greeting guests).

- Nick S and Tom M, who (at different times) stood outside in the cold evening by themselves, manning the outside bar so that our guests could mitigate their thirst.

- a certain past-festival chair who lent not only her wisdom, but also her hands/legs/arms to set up the entire festival (tents, booths, etc) and then was seen throughout the weekend filling almost-empty fork baskets (where did you find those forks when none of us could?), manning the admissions booth when it was empty, and too many other things to write here.

- And most notably, everyone who organized this event – led by our courageous and giving Foula, Manoli and Mike Canellos (yes, our humble ‘third chair’) – so that those of us who showed up on Friday, Saturday or Sunday actually had a festival at which to volunteer!

May God bless you all and the work you so generously contributed for His church!

-Caroline

Return to the Main Index