August 28, 2009
Parishes report profits, new faces — lots of fun
Cyndi Gogel heads up the turtle soup operation during the summer social at Mary, Help of Christians Church at Mariah Hill. “She is the master cook for our secret recipe turtle soup,” said Deacon James Woebkenberg, pastoral life coordinator. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Editor’s note: In preparation for the following roundup of summer social activity, Mary Ann Hughes requested information from all parishes with socials scheduled in 2009. The following story is based on comments and information from those who responded.
Summer socials are a great way to enhance parish coffers. They often bring in new faces as well as familiar ones, but many pastors agree that the best part about summer socials is the fellowship that grows as parishioners plan and work together.
MAY
• Parishioners at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville opened the 2009 summer social season on May 14 with their annual celebration. Benedictine Father Gregory Chamberlin, pastor, said, “We were threatened with rain several evenings but it did not materialize except a little bit one evening. It did not keep crowds away. I think we were a little bit larger than last year and there were new faces including former [Evansville] Mayor Russ Lloyd.
“Profits were about the same as last year. Dinners were well attended, especially the two nights when prime rib was offered as well as the traditional chicken. We will have new co-chairs next year yet to be named but I think the structure will be pretty much as it has been. The rides, of course, were very popular with the kids.”
• On May 28, 29 and 30, Holy Rosary parish on Evansville’s eastside held its social. Chris-tine Gilles is the director of stewardship there. She said, “Our social went very well again this year. Once again we were blessed with good weather and great crowds, especially Friday night. Thursday it sprinkled a little at the beginning and looked like it was going to rain, but didn’t and Saturday it rained everywhere but here, so that may have affected the crowds on those two evenings. I did see lots of new faces.
“We ended up raising around $5,000 more than last year, so we were pleased. Our car and quilt raffles were up from prior years as well as the family style dinners and outside food booths. The silent/chance auction stayed the same. The rides and games were a little behind last year. We had a Karaoke booth that ran all three nights that was very popular.”
She added, “We are looking forward to next year and will have to get ready a little quicker — and during school — as our [2010] dates are May 20, 21 and 22.”
Father Bernie Etienne, pastor, said, “Our summer social is a tremendous community builder for Holy Rosary Parish. We had over 800 volunteers from the parish working our social.”
JUNE
• St. John the Baptist Church in Newburgh held its summer social on June 18, 19 and 20. Father Joseph Ziliak, pastor, said the social had new faces this year, but the crowds on Friday and Saturday “seemed a bit down from last year.”
The rides are “always a big hit. The balloon toss was new for us, and drew from young to old. It was a good addition to the mix of games.”
This year’s profits were down “several thousand dollars” compared with last year, he said.
• Our social at Corpus Christi was Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20,” said Melissa Stockton.
“We had a great turnout, and our pony rides for the small children was a huge success!” The “famous sausage burgers” were also a hit. “As far as profits, we were up a little from the past few years.”
• Good Shepherd Church in Evansville holds a three-day summer social; this year’s dates were June 25, 26 and 27. Deacon Ed Wilkerson, pastoral life coordinator, said, “For the past several years we have had rain on our social. This year we all prayed for dry weather and our prayers were answered. We never thought to pray for decent temperatures though. Each day of our social the temperature was in the high 90’s.
“Our crowds seemed to be down some this year and our profits were off a bit. The big-gest interest was again the dinner and food booths as well as rides and activities for children. One of the greatest benefits of our social is the coming together of parishioners and working together for the common good.”
JULY
• “Nativity’s summer social was a two day social,” said Nancy Oskins, business manager at the Evansville parish. “It was bigger than last year due to us bringing back outside rides. We found a new company out of Kentucky that was able to do two days. We had a wonderful dinner and many theme baskets to raffle. We have a variety auction, Hispanic food, homemade fudge and quilt and cash raffles.
“The crowd seemed to be more from around the diocese, not just the east side this year, which was nice to see.
“The most popular feature was the homemade fudge; we had so many flavors from pina colada to cherry vanilla, chocolate to chocolate coconut and more. We also had wonderful theme baskets this year in which the parishioners provided everything. Our dinners were very well received also, catfish, fried chicken and roast beef dinners.
“The profits were down a little this year, about $800.”
She said next year she would like to find a ride company that charges less for the rides. “The tickets were $1 each but some/most of the rides took three tickets. That’s too much for anyone especially our neighborhood families.”
• July 12 was the date for the summer social at St. Bernard’s in Rockport. The pastor, Father Eugene Schmitt, said, “I think it went well.” After talking with several volunteers, he believes there was a bigger crowd compared with last year.
“Our chairperson felt that we had more people from the parish than ever work at the social, prepare food for the social, and just come to the social.” There were also parishioners from nearby St. Martin Church in Chrisney and from the town of Rockport.
He said that the “Classic Car is probably the most popular feature of the social. There are many other popular features including the chicken and roast beef dinners along with turtle soup. We sold 100 more dinners than last year and sold out of turtle soup again early. The profits were slightly down because we lost an hour of time due to rain at the end of the day. We hope to spend some money updating some equipment.”
Father Schmitt is also the pastor at St. Martin parish which will have its soup social from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 4.
• The annual dinner at St. Rupert Church in Red Brush brought in about the same number of people as last year, according to Father Lowell Will, pastor.
“We did have a few new faces to help in the kitchen, which was so good. Probably the grilled pork chops and the St. Rupert dumplings” were the most popular items.
Money wise, “we really did a little better than in previous years, I believe it was one of our best years.”
• “We had a tremendous social this year,” reports Deacon Dave Seibert, pastoral life coordinator at St. Theresa Church in Evansville. “We could not have ordered better weather all three nights. Not too hot, not too cool.
“Crowds were much larger than last year all three nights. This may have been due in part to the fact that we had rides back again. The past three years we were without them. There were a lot of faces we didn’t recognize, which means we were drawing from a broader area than just the parish or our neighborhood.
“In addition to the rides returning, we tried a fresh produce stand as one of our booths. One new food item introduced was corn on the cob. As always, our special fish sandwich is one of the most popular items.
“As always, the parishioners pitched in and worked really hard in the weeks leading up to and the week of the social. Thanks to them, our revenues were up considerably this year and the profit will be the best we have seen in five or six years. This is good in light of the tighter economy.”
The parish social was held July 16, 17 and 18.
• St. Joseph Church in Vanderburgh County chose Sunday, July 26, for its summer social date. “Our social went very well,” said Father Gene Schroeder, pastor.
“We had wonderful weather — a little unusual for us since it is usually hot.
“We served a little more than 2,200 meals which is the big thing for us. Overall, the crowd was pretty good. Income for the year was up a little from last year, and expenses were about the same. We grossed about $63,000, and our net will be $49,000 plus.
“We were well pleased with the day.”
AUGUST
• The summer social at Mary, Help of Christians parish in Mariah Hill was held on Sunday, Aug. 9. Deacon James Woebkenberg is the pastoral life coordinator at the parish. He said, “We had a hot day for our picnic and so attendance was down. However, compared to last year our income was down only four percent. We expected a larger difference from last year. As always in the past, the dinners and turtle soup draw people here to our picnic. They are our biggest fundraisers.
“The Chinese auction has picked up quite a bit in the last few years. We also have a quilt stand with about 25 hand made quits that we raffle off. We have some stands that kids can have things to do too.”
He said the parish recently had a planning meeting for next year’s picnic and “a few suggestions surfaced such as providing transportation to and from the parking lots. We are also trying to come up with new stands and activities for children. Bringing a musical group to play at the picnic was also discussed.”
He emphasized that “we are very grateful for all those who came to visit us. The weather sometimes made all feel uncomfortable, but we hope they enjoyed this day enough to want to return next year.”
• “Our social was just last weekend so we do not yet have all our numbers in,” said Julie Buedel, social committee member at St. Philip Church, Posey County.
“The crowd seemed to be a little down, but we think it may at least in part be attributed to the hot weather and other events occurring the same weekend. New attractions this year were our corn hole tournament and water wars game which went over very well.
“Overall it was a successful and fun weekend!”
• Precious Blood parish in Jasper held its summer social on August 16. Father Gary Kaiser, pastor, said, “Our parking areas were 90 percent full and the drive-through traffic would lead me to believe that this could have been our largest crowd (overall) in some time. This year seemed to have a few new people attending.”
He suggested that since the parish has a new pastor and a new principal, Joe Brake, “several family and friends came” to support them and their new parish. “There seemed to be a good showing from across southern Indiana. Large groups of people came from Haubstadt, Fort Branch, Vincennes, Bloomington, Evansville and the New Albany/Louisville area.”
The most popular feature of the day was the quilt display. “No question that the quilt stand still draws the most interest. Nearly 100 quilts were on display to be raffled off throughout the picnic. One lady won six that day. People lined up in large crowds to take a chance on winning these hand-made works of art. The quilts vary in size and design. A team of parishioners works all year round to make the quilts which draw people from across Southern Indiana to our picnic.”
The gross profits were just under last year’s figures, he said, adding, “Our expenses were down also this year. We hope to be similar or a just a little above last year’s net proceeds from our picnic.
“I firmly believe that the benefit is not only the money earned through the social/picnic or auction events but rather the fellowship parishioners share. Looking at that I think this was an all around successful year. I am grateful to all who came, those who helped with the picnic and to God.”
Next year there will be a large tent for people to stand and see the quilts. “Also we plan to have more in the silent auction area since that was so well received this year. Since the drive through dinners were such a big success we are looking into selling our famous turtle soup in the drive through as well.”