Centennial Year Church Events

June 10, 2005 -   St. Anne's Guild sponsored their Centennial Anniversary Tricky Tray in the Church Hall, located directly behind SS. Peter and Paul Church (photo below left), on Friday evening, June 10, a steamy evening eleven days before the official start of summer. The event was co-chaired by Mrs. Karen Berezniak (back row, second from left in photo below) and Mrs. Lisa Yasuk (back row, fourth from left in photo below) and was made a success by the hard work of all of those pictured. For those who may not know what a "Tricky Tray" is (and that includes your reporter), we go to the official site for Tricky Trays, www.TrickyTray.com, for a definition. According to this site a Tricky Tray is "a fund raising event for a church, school, or other organization where guests buy tickets, then place them in a container next to the item they would like to win. Items can be a single item or a group of items based on a theme. Once everyone has had the opportunity to place his or her tickets in the container, the drawing for the prizes begins. If your number matches the winning number drawn, you win that prize." Below are photos grouped loosely according to the following categories: (1) gifts and their display; (2) the workers in the kitchen and the food that they prepared; and (3) the event itself - the selection of winners and the distribution of prizes.

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Above left, Susan Halpin and Paula Mindzak greet the arrivals and sell prize tickets. Above right, guests deposited ticket stubs in containers representing the gifts that they were hoping to win.

Above and below, visitors reviewed the many prizes on display before casting their ticket stubs in the corresponding containers in the hope of securing those particular prizes. Prizes represented donations from St. Anne's Guild members, parishioner donations, and donations from various stores and restaurants in the Middlesex County area.

Above left, the Grand Prize was a complete set of chinaware while, above right and below, many elaborate liquor baskets were up for grabs as well.

You can count on your reporter to eventually make his way back into the kitchen to see what's cooking! Pierogies, baked pretzels, and many baked goods had been prepared by a dedicated staff of workers in the kitchen well in advance of the event as the photos above and below show.

Above are shown some of the members of the St. Anne's Guild having a good time while hard at work. Below left, tickets for the Grand Prize were sold up until the last moment. Below right, some of the criteria for judging the success of an event include the size of the attendance, the quality of the fellowship among the attendees, the diversity and quality of the prizes, the quantity and quality of the food, and yes, the income derived from the event! Below right, co-chair Mrs. Yasuk tallies the evening's receipts. With regard to all of the criteria cited, the event was a rousing success! Proceeds from the event will flow from the St. Anne's Guild to SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church to defray costs associated with our Church's One Hundredth Anniversary Celebration.

The drawing for prizes began promptly at 8:00 p.m. although the doors opened two hours earlier to allow guests time to socialize and inspect the prizes. Above left, event co-chair - Mrs. Lisa Yasuk - welcomed the full house. Above right, Church President - Mr. James Kornafel - was the Master of Ceremonies for the evening. As such, he was responsible for pulling the winning ticket stubs, announcing the winning numbers, and seeing that each gift was successfully delivered to the appropriate recipient.

Above left, workers are shown having fun as the prize distribution gets under way. Above right and below left and right - could it be that the technique used to draw the stubs affected one's chances of winning?

Many in the audience were guests from outside our parish and it was obvious to this reporter that this tricky tray in our Church was not the first such event that they had attended. Many had all manner of device with them other than just a hand to indicate that they had won a particular prize. A simple raising of the hand also got a particular prize to its rightful owner.

Above left, "Mrs. Teddy Bear" was assured a good home (above right).

Above left, Dorothy Edwards's table had her name on it. Many parishioners had reserved an entire table to ensure seating with family, friends, and guests. Above right, President Kornafel's mother Olga is shown receiving one of the prizes. Below left, St. Anne's Guild members are shown assisting Mr. Kornafel in bringing gift to the fore from the display area and then seeing that the gifts were situated with the winning recipient. Below right, Barbara Horsky reviews her ticket holdings in the hope of winning a prize before the end of the evening.

Thanks to the hard work of all the members of the St. Anne's Guild, everyone had a great time, many had won some considerable and spectacular gifts, and SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church was the ultimate beneficiary of this parish fund-raiser. Clearly this type of activity is very popular and has a wide following!

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Copyright © 2005, Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, South River, NJ