SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012
SACRED HEART CHURCH BAZAAR
BILL TARUTIS/FOR THE SUNDAY DISPATCH
Rosemary Borkowski, left, of Suscon, and Marianne Kocylowski, of Bear Creek, join other volunteers in pinching the edges of stuffed pierogies at Sacred Heart Church.
PIEROGIES ... IN A PINCH
Volunteers turn out for annual church festival in Dupont By JOE HEALEY jhealey@psdispatch.com
P
we did as kids. It’s enjoyable. We have fun.” Hours and hours of work are put in to making 33,000 delicious Polish treats. From peeling potatoes and grating cheese to kneading and rolling the dough. Then there’s the stuffing and pinching and boiling and cooling and See PIEROGIES, Page 4
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lop. Fold. Pinch. Repeat. It’s not an easy job, but for the members of the pierogi assembly line at Sacred Heart Church in Dupont, it’s done with pure love. “It’s our parish and we put our hearts and souls into this,” said Marianne Kocylowski, of Bear Creek, part of the crew getting ready for church’s annual bazaar last week. “We talk about old times, the things
Rose Ann and Arlene Skrzysowski, of Dupont, spoon out mashed potato balls to stuff pierogi dough in preparation for the annual Sacred Heart of Jesus Church picnic which concluded Saturday night.
SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012
Carolyn Klimek, of Dupont, mixes pierogi dough. BILL TARUTIS/ FOR THE SUNDAY DISPATCH
Pierogies
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packing and storing. The process begins the night before when parishioners peel the potatoes. The next morning, the potatoes are boiled then mashed with cheese (15 pounds of potatoes get about four pounds of “After 50 cheese), cooled years, I and scooped into small know what balls. I’m doing. Another assembly line has It’s all in the dough mathe finchine kneading gers. It’s balls of dough, which is fed inlike one to a mechanizsmooth ed roller. The pinching sheets of dough are laid flat and motion.” a group of volMildred unteers, using Mlodzienski round cookie Dupont cutters, makes the discs. (Over a ton of flour and 21,600 eggs goes through the dough machine.) The dough rounds are placed on a cookie sheet and taken to the pinchers’ tables. The ball of filling goes in the middle of a dough circle and the women fold them into half moons. Then they pinch. And pinch. And pinch. Mildred Mlodzienski, of Dupont, said there’s really no secret to proper pierogi pinching; you just learn over time. “After 50 years, I know what I’m doing,” she said. “It’s all in
Tom Titton, of Dupont, rolls pierogi dough before it is cut and stuffed.
Frank Skrzysowski, of Dupont, uses a hole saw to drill cores out of cabbages to make them easier to boil for halushki and piggies.
the fingers. It’s like one smooth pinching motion.” Kocylowski, a lifetime member of Sacred Heart, said you have to make sure the pierogi is completely sealed. “If there’s a hole in the dough, it will come apart when they’re boiling,” she said. “We have to make sure they’re closed real good.” After a tray is full, it is taken into the kitchen where each pierogi is submerged in a vat of boil-
ing water. (Fourteen massive cauldrons of boiling water make for a very hot kitchen, by the way.) “When they float, they’re done,” Lacomis said. They’re then put in a cold water bath: a pretty complex system with a pump and many large blocks of ice. Joe Lacomis, of Suscon, Pittston Township, food chairman for the bazaar, said volunteers will make 22,000 potato, 5,500
Greg Zawacki, of Old Forge, transfers pinched pierogies to pots of boiling water in the kitchen.
cheese and 5,500 cabbage pierogi. “By far, the potato ones are the most popular,” he said. At the bazaar, they sell for 75 cents each or 3 for $2. “We never raised the price on them,” Lacomis said. Frank Skrzysowski, of Dupont, was coring cabbages … with a drill. “You take out the core and it’s easier for the women to make piggies. The cabbage just falls
off.” Lacomis got emotional when he looked across the hall and saw all the volunteers hard at work. He said there were over 100 volunteers, including more than 40 volunteer “pinchers.” “We’re a family here,” he said. “Sacred Heart Church is a family. I get a little emotional when all these people show up to help out. It’s just amazing.”
SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2012
TONY CALLAIO/FOR THE SUNDAY DISPATCH
Father and daughter team of Ben and Jennifer Gadomski stand in front of their street lining truck. Ben is very proud of his daughter's decision to join the family business.
Along family lines
Father/daughter form lasting bond working side by side By JOE HEALEY jhealey@psdispatch
You could say there’s paint in their blood. The father/daughter team of Ben and Jennifer Gadomski of Falls can be found most any day on the roadways and parking lots of Northeastern Pennsylvania painting lines. They operate M
Mayo Striping and their bond is strong, like the double yellow stripes they leave behind on a freshly paved roadway. Jennifer, now 22, has been working with her dad since she was 12 years old, helping him paint lines in parking lots. Her dad beams with pride telling the story of her first job on the road.
“We were in the middle of a job in Wyoming County when one of my employees quit,” he said. “Between the first and second application, he just quit.” Jennifer’s playing around on the equipment when she was young likely helped out. “She would always climb around the back of the paint truck when she was little,” Ben said.
And she got to know how everything worked. “So right after that guy quit, we just put her on the job and she’s been back there ever since.” Jennifer’s great grandfather, Forrest Mayo formed the company in 1958 with his wife, Margaret. And the company has been in See LINES, Page 24
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SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2012
Jennifer Gadomski carefully watches her mark while in constant contact with her father on the two-way radio.
Ben Gadomski has a steady hand while following his marks on the road. It's critical to maintain accuracy while striping lines of roadways all over the northeast.
Line
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the family ever since – four generations now. “She was born into it,” he said. “My father did it and his father before him did it. For Jenn, it was just a natural fit.” On a job painting lines on streets, Ben drives the truck and Jennifer operates the airless painter on the back of the rig. Besides running the back of the paint truck, Jennifer’s role has expanded as she got older. Some of her current duties include taking the lead in presenting work bids and making estimates, keeping track of supplies, doing paperwork and computer work, talking with customers and working on the company’s drug testing and safety policies. “I do it all,” she said. “It’s my career now.” Jennifer is a 2008 graduate of Wyoming Area and recently received a degree from Penn State in administration of justice. “I’m very proud of her,” her dad said. “She can do anything she wants. She could have gone into the state police academy, but she stayed here and stayed in the
family business.” For Jennifer, going to work in the morning is a pleasure. “It’s not really work to me,” she said. “It’s just hanging out with me dad.” Dad and daughter will paint everything, including traffic lines and markings, basketball courts, tennis courts, signs, poles, guard rails, bollards. Yellow and white traffic paint are their primary colors, but they work in a rainbow of other hues. “We’ll paint the Penn State Nittany Lion on your tennis court if that’s what you want,”
TONY CALLAIO/FOR THE SUNDAY DISPATCH
she said. “We can do any color.” The Gadomskis seem to have a colorful future. Solid lines. Solid business. Solid family. Blood, thicker than paint.
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SUNDAY DISPATCH, SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012
G R E AT E R P I T T S T O N AT W O R K
Martha rings Duryea market for some rings By JOE HEALEY
jhealey@psdispatch.com
She was running down Main Street, chasing the UPS deliveryman. A box of kielbasi packed in ice needed to be shipped. Fast. Brenda Sepelyak, co-owner of Komensky’s Market, was trying to get several rings of her store’s award-winning smoked and fresh rings to New York City by 10 a.m. Destination: The Martha Stewart Show. It started with a call from the show’s producers, Sepelyak said, the day before the show was taped. “The place where Martha
normally got her kielbasa in New York City closed and she asked her audience if they knew of any good places,” Sepelyak said. “Somebody mentioned us.” The show’s producers asked if Sepelyak could get them several rings for the next morning’s show. That’s when Sepelyak started to sweat. The UPS driver had already come and gone. “I ran down the street trying to catch him,” she said. “Thank God I found him and we arranged to make the delivery by 8 a.m. the next morning.” Komensky’s was featured in the first segment of Stewart’s show, but because Easter is one
of the busiest times at the market, those working at the store couldn’t even watch the show. “We were so busy, we had to TiVo the show,” Sepelyak said, noting she and her husband, Robert Sepelyak, have very little time to watch TV during Easter week. “She gave us a nice plug,” she said of Stewart. Sepelyak said the meat was prepared and served to Stewart’s staff as part of an Easter banquet. Komensky’s Market is at 412 Main St. in Duryea. The business ships its product locally and around the world. “It’s such an honor,” Sepelyak said. “We love Martha. We think we found a new customer.”
Brenda Sepelyak of Komensky's Market on Main Street in Duryea shows off a ring of smoked and fresh kielbasi on Thursday. JOE HEALEY/THE SUNDAY DISPATCH
Pittston’s Arts SEEN Gallery readies for workshops By JOE HEALEY
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jhealey@psdispatch.com
Maria Livrone displays some of her glass work at Arts SEEN on Main Street in Pittston on Tuesday. Livrone is the new director and the facility has plans to start art workshops and classes. JOE HEALEY/THE SUNDAY DISPATCH
Thinking about trying your hand at pottery? Is silk screen your dream? Want to have a brush with oil painting? Arts SEEN Gallery on South Main Street is being remodeled to accommodate numerous art workshops, according to the shop’s new directors, Maria Livrone and Bill Zack of Visions in Art Glass and Metal. Once complete, the new classroom will host workshops for virtually all mediums of art, including pottery, glass, silkscreening, photography, oil, acrylic, fiber, origami and jewelry. Livrone said the classes should begin around the end of May and will be taught by various local artists. “Downtown Pittston is in the middle of a rebirth and we’re glad we’re part of it,” Livrone said. The public, for-profit gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat-
urdays; and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. It features art from more than 30 local artists. Christine Altmann, an artist in residence, rents an 8-foot by 8-foot space in the gallery and specializes in seasonal, holiday art with a specialty on Halloween. The gallery owners plan to host an Art on Main exhibition, similar to what is going on in numerous local cities, on the second Friday of every month. The first one will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on May 11. “We’re inviting local artists to show off their work,” Livrone said. “There is so much artistic talent in this area, it’s unbelievable.” Other artists on display include Pittston native Bill Brandenburg, Estelle Campenni of West Pittston and Sherri Prokopchak, of Kingston. Others include Kevin McGroarty, John Levandoski, Marylin Querci and Leandra Hetro. Livrone encourages residents to visit the gallery’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ artsseengallerypittston