Judging by the cool temperatures predicted for Scranton on October 19, I was hoping the weather wouldn’t keep people from attending our roast beef dinner. I honestly don’t know why I worry about such things. I should have just trusted that the Lord would provide … and as usual he did!
Led by Cathy Gavin, owner of Stirna’s Restaurant who catered the dinner for us for free, a dedicated team of more than 20 volunteers and staff served nearly 800 dinners to the Greater Scranton community at this annual event. The meal, which was served from noon to 4 p.m. in the auditorium of our home, included roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, applesauce, rolls and butter, assorted pies, and beverages. As patrons arrived and left the dinner, many of them also purchased pastries, cookies, and scones at our bake sale sponsored by the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association. Our guests also purchased tickets for a chance to win over 50 prizes and cash! Combining our ticket sales with the proceeds from our dinner sponsorship program, bake sale, and raffles we are very happy to report that we raised over $21,000 which covered a large portion of the costs we incurred when we replaced a portion of our heating and air conditioning system this fall.
As you can imagine, planning and preparing for this dinner is quite an undertaking and we could not do it without the help of so many people. We are so grateful to the many families and individuals who attended our dinner to make it a complete success as well as the many parishes of our diocese, Lamar Advertising, and WNEP-TV for helping us get the word out about this important fundraiser. We are also thankful to all of our dinner sponsors, benefactors, prize and baked good donors for their very generous support as well as to the many area businesses that provided us with donations to use in our gift certificate and basket raffle. Last, but certainly not least, we would like to thank our committee members and volunteers who worked very hard to help this event to run so smoothly and successfully. We certainly could not have done this without all of you!
To view the program listing all of our dinner sponsors and supporters, please click here.
Until next time,
Jackie
