MONROE, CT — Stewart Amusement Co. trucks in the parking lot behind St. Jude Parish Friday morning had rides yet to be unloaded, including an Elephant Fly, which is popular with young children. But two large food tents had already been erected, standing side-by-side.
“Tomorrow, refrigerators and equipment for the food tent will be brought down,” said Paul Seperack, chairman of the St. Jude Italian Festival. “The Stewart people will start setting up on Monday.”
The festival debuts this Wednesday, Aug. 21, and will run through Saturday, Aug. 24. Aside from being the church’s main fundraiser, Seperack said the annual event brings a sense of community to the St. Jude Parish grounds at 707 Monroe Turnpike.
“Other than the Memorial Day Parade, I think this is the biggest thing that goes on in town,” he said during an interview in the church hall. “This is very family oriented. We have a bunch of rides for little kids and teenagers.”
The Italian Festival is always held the weekend before Labor Day, offering fun evenings for children before the new school year begins. This year’s festival will be from 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 5 to 10 p.m. on Saturday.
The founders of the Italian Festival, now in its 34th year, are Bob Tranzillo, Sonny Tortora and the late Dom Arribas. Seperack, who has been volunteering with his wife, Nanette, for the past 27 years, said it takes close to 60 volunteers to make the festival a success.
The event committee does a debriefing every September, assessing how the last festival went, before monthly planning meetings for the next one begin again in January or February, according to Seperack.
A signup board in the church asks parishioners to volunteer. “We put it up after Father’s Day weekend,” Seperack said.
Volunteers are young and old, from the teenagers who work as food runners, to the adults who cook, set up the festival and take part in the clean up on Sunday.
Proceeds from the Italian Festival are used to support church operations, maintenance, ministries and a youth group among the many needs of the parish.
Seperack said the festival is a good way to invite people from surrounding communities to St. Jude’s church grounds, as well as an opportunity for parishioners to socialize with each other.
“I go to the 4:30 Saturday Mass, so I don’t see people that go to Mass on Sundays,” Seperack said. “It’s really good for the parish to interact with other parishioners outside of Mass.”
Quality food
Children love the rides at the St. Jude Italian Festival, which also has music, a dance floor and bubbles from JMG Entertainment in Monroe, a raffle and a 50/50 raffle. This year’s top raffle prize is $3,000 cash to be awarded after a 9 p.m. drawing Saturday night.
However, Seperack said the food may be the festival’s biggest draw. Though the event is a church fundraiser, he said organizers pride themselves on the quality of the food.
One night, a festival goer may come for the sausage and peppers, before coming back again to order cavatelli with meatballs from Jennie’s. “A lot of times people come more than one night, so they can try different things,” Seperack said.
Jennie’s Pizzeria, 380 Monroe Turnpike, is a longtime food provider, bringing favorites like pizza slices and eggplant and chicken parmigiana.
DeYulio’s Sausage of Bridgeport provides the sausage for the sausage and peppers, and City Line Distributors of West Haven brings the hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and cheesesteaks that are cooked in the food tent.
“The Philly cheesesteaks are new this year,” Seperack said. “It’s an item we’re adding to test out and see how popular it is. We had some extra grill space and thought, ‘what can we put on it?'”
Desserts will be provided by Del Prete Italian Pastry and Miccalizzi Italian Ice, two popular Bridgeport businesses. Another vendor, who did well last year, Vinci’s Concessions of Berlin, is back with its Fried Dough Truck.
Smiling faces
During good weather, Seperack said anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 people come to the festival on a given day. “On a good Saturday last year, we sold over 1,000 ride bracelets,” he said, adding bracelets cost $35 this summer.
“Prices are crazy, we should probably charge more, but we don’t,” Seperack said. “We try to keep it affordable for families.”
After all of the planning and work, Seperack said volunteers enjoy seeing the fruits of their labor when the festival finally gets underway.
“We get to see a lot of smiling faces and families that come,” he said. “That’s really why we go through all this effort. It’s a big effort to pull this off, but you get your satisfaction seeing the visitors come and have a good time. Families, young people and old people, it’s really the community aspect of it.”
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