A thank you goes out to Kathi Kinzig and Kim Van Slyke who are taking charge of the coupon books for the Bon Ton Community Day on November 13th. The proceeds from this effort will go towards the St. James School Advancement Fund. The books are $5 each and available in the rectory and school. The entire $5 cost will be donated to St. James School Fund. This cost entitles you to a $10 off coupon and 8 early bird coupons for 20% off. This a great way to save money for yourself and help the school at the same time. It is a win-win for everyone.

The entire St. James School community was saddened by the recent resignations of Melissa Ward and Cathy Sebunia. Mrs. Ward has been our music teacher for the last six years. She is moving to Baltimore to accept a new position with an internet related business. Cathy Sebunia has been at our school for the last 15 years. In addition to being a teacher’s aide in our preschool and kindergarten, she also took charge of the library, supervised the cafeteria, helped in all areas of the school, and served on our Advancement Committee. She functioned in so many varied capacities and was so adept at multitasking, that she could have used two sets of hands! We wish her well as she discerns her new career path and look forward to seeing her at school related events in the future.

Until all the bills come in and are paid, it is too early for us to know exactly how much better we did on this year’s festival. As soon as that information becomes available, I’ll let you know. On a bright note, the gift card basket, suggested by Mary Jo Schley and Michelle Barbale, brought in $3,457.00. This was a great addition to our festival and will help make up for the revenue lost due to the rain on Friday evening. The theme baskets yielded a profit of $4,969.00. This is $720.00 more than last year. The Chinese Auction brought in $3,434.00. Our bake sale made $2,033.00. The bean bag tournament, another popular addition to this year’s festival, brought in $270.00. I’ve mentioned the profit from these activities because this money resulted from your kind donations. Again, I want to thank all those who contributed items for the bake sale, gift cards, or theme baskets.

I’m very appreciative of the efforts of all those who helped in any way with last week’s festival. We had a nice showing of the men and high school students to set up and tear down the festival booths and equipment. The women of the parish out did themselves with the wide variety of delicious deserts at the bake sale. Many people commented that the spaghetti and turkey dinners were the best in the area. The theme baskets, Chinese Auction, and gift card basket were big draws to the festival. I’m grateful to all those who donated theme baskets, items for the Chinese Auction or cards for the gift card basket. New to this year’s festival were the bean bag tournament, skee ball , and the tacos. The proposal for the bean bag tournament came from Jeff and Dan Fromknecht. Tom Sigler came up with the idea for the skee ball game. Del Petrush suggested adding tacos.

I’m grateful to all those who are helping at this weekend’s festival. We are still in need of help. If you can give us a hand, please go to the school office and they will find you a spot where your time and talents will be best utilized. One of our homebound parishioners told me that she is sorry that she is no longer able to work at the festival or sell the car chances to her friends at the senior citizens’ center. What she did not realize is, although she isn’t able to help the same way this year as she has in the past, she is still did her part; she did what she could. She called her relatives and friends who don’t belong to our parish and encouraged them to come. She encouraged people to buy car tickets at the mall. I pointed out to her that even from home, she’s still helping the festival. Like her, please do your part and help us in any way that you can.

Please do all that is within your power to help make this year’s festival successful. This recession and the related unemployment have hurt our weekly collection. Even though the collection is down, the bills and expenses – just like in your own homes - continue to go up. I’d appreciate any help you can give us. We will begin moving the festival equipment from the storage area to festival grounds Monday, August 2nd at 9:00 AM. The men and boys of the parish are strongly encouraged to give us a hand. Help will again be needed each evening at 6:00 PM to set up the booth and to take care of all the other necessary tasks to transform the parking lot into a festival ground. Many people who we relied on in the past to help with the festival set up and with staffing the booths are now infirmed or have passed away. We need you to help fill their shoes and lend a hand. This is particularly true when it comes to the setting up and tearing down of the festival equipment and to helping in the casino tent. I’m asking those who are not parishioners, but are regular visitors to our weekend Masses to help out. If you have not filled out a festival worker form, simply go to the school office during the festival and they will find a place for you. If you can bake, I’d appreciate your donations to the bake sale. This booth always draws a crowd and is one of our biggest money makers. If at all possible, please buy or sell your car tickets and encourage your friends and relatives to attend the festival. Thanks in advance for all your help.

Each year as we prepare for the festival, we line the main entrance of the school and the hallways with large pieces of cardboard. We do this to prevent the carpet from being stained or damaged. For as far back as I can remember, that cardboard has been provided by Dave Mleczko, a salesman at Arthur F. Schultz. He saves the boxes from the appliances he sells and donates them to us to use to protect our floors. Dave is planning to retire at the end of this year, but has arranged for someone at Schultz’s to continue to supplying us cardboard in the years ahead. Many thanks to Dave and to the management of Arthur F. Schultz for their solicitude towards our parish.

Over 1,000 cupcakes for the festival were recently baked at our school by Jeanine Gibbons, Joanie Shea, and Bob Shea. I’m very grateful to them for taking charge of this project. This is the second year that they have taken on this responsibility. In the past, the cakes were ordered from a local bakery. Their hard work and generosity has saved the parish hundreds of dollar. Also, a thank you to Bill Turner who was instrumental in getting the boxes that the cupcakes are being stored in donated. Again, this has saved us the expense of having to purchase them. This is just another example of how involved and responsive our parishioners always are.

A thank you goes out to those who helped cook the first 34 festival turkeys on June 29th: Kathy Schaaf, Mary Schaaf, Pat Holland, Karen Holland, Grace Holland, Adam Spinelli, Stephanie Forish, Evan Hornick, Sarah Hornick, Janet Szewczykowski, and Malcolm Goodwine. In addition to the turkeys that were donated last fall, Marlene Landon, Arlene Nash, Karen Kleck, and Frank Busch recently donated turkeys for the festival. It is the generosity of our people that make this such a wonderfully affirming parish.

The replacement windows for the mothers’ chapel and side chapel have arrived and will be installed by Tom Blais and Tom Michalski in the near future. The cost of these 10 windows has been defrayed by the generosity of a parishioner who wishes to remain anonymous. This individual’s gift will ensure that the winter drafts felt by the mothers and children in the mothers’ chapel, by the priests, and servers in the sacristy, and the people sitting under the windows in the side chapel will be eliminated. It also means that we will see a substantial reduction in the air-conditioning bills during the summer months. In my name and yours, I offer a heartfelt thank you to that party for underwriting the cost of the windows.

Our next festival meeting will take place on July 20th at St. James Place at 7:00 PM. Thanks to the following who were at last week’s meeting: Bob Walls, Tom Blais, Deacon Chuck, Bob Shea, Kathy Schaaf, Kathleen Kinzig, Carol Huffman, Susan Wascak, Louis Twargoski, Bob Strasser, Mary Fromknecht, Jason Kuhn, Cathy Kuhn, Rick Kuhn, Mary Jo Schley, Jane Olowin, Judy Walker, Mary Jane Clark, Bonnie Kern, Sandi Benes, Del Petrush, Sallie Morgan, Mary Jane Robie, Tom Sigler, Sandy Benek, Nancy Veshecco, and Michele Dean.

Fr. Paul Donohue will be with us this weekend for the annual mission appeal. This year’s collection will be used by the Camboni Missionaries to further their work in their African mission. Fr. Paul will speak at all the Masses with the exception of the 11:30. That Mass will be offered and the homily given by our newly ordained Fr. Christopher. The mission collection will be taken up at all Masses this weekend.

Next Sunday Fr. Christopher Barnes will celebrate the 11:30 Mass. Following the Mass, all are welcome to attend a reception for him at St. James Place. I’m grateful to Nancy Veshecco and Gina Chimera for taking charge of this event. A thank you also goes out to all those who volunteered to bake cookies or who will be helping out in any capacity at the reception. As Fr. Chris moves on to his first priestly assignment, I’m sure that he will always remember his experiences at St. James with a deep fondness. Let’s hope and pray that the pastor and parishioners at his new assignment will be as supportive and appreciative of his talents and ministry as we have been here.

Congratulations go out to two of our teachers who reached milestone years in their teaching careers: Patricia Case marked 35 years at St. James School; Lisa Norton has been with us for the last 30 years. I’m grateful for their many years of faithful and dedicated service to our school and students. May they each be with us for 35 more years!

Our grade school soccer season has come to an end. I’d like to recognize and thank Al Murawski, Rich Zamiroski, Dom DiLullo, Gina Chimera, and Kim Van Slyke for their help in selling 50/50 tickets at each of the home games. Our teams were coached by the following dedicated individuals: Varsity Girls: Joann Gilkinson, Greg Wawrzynik, George Gilkinson, and Elizabeth Gilkinson; Varsity Boys: Dave Repko, Mark D’Annibale, and Al Murawski; JV Girls: Susan Majocka and Kat Bailey; JV Boys: Joe Dietz, Tony Chimera, and Derek Van Slyke.