Volunteers Cooking Tons Of Food For Annual Ethnic Fest

The pressure is on for volunteers who are getting ready to feed about 20,000 people who will be in Johnstown's Cambria City neighborhood for the annual Ethnic Fest.

Thursday, the kitchen at St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church was a flurry of activity. Cooks like Sylvia Goff and about a dozen other volunteers were up to their elbows in food. For weeks, they have been preparing about 7,000 cabbage rolls, 40,000 pierogis, 2 tons of haluski and 3,200 gobs.

"I help my husband -- he comes down and we get everything rolling, then the ladies come down and start rolling the pigs," Goff said. "It's like a well-oiled machine. We just keep right on going. We made about 1,200 pigs in 2 1/2 hours."

Visitors to the Ethnic Fest will see some new additions this year. A few local restaurants like The Phoenix, Pyramids Lounge and Cruzin' Creamery are setting up booths to showcase some of their own secret recipes, and the churches are welcoming them with open arms.

St. Mary's Msgr. Raymond Balta said, "We want to show the diversity and the ethnicity of Johnstown and we want to show the variety that we have."

Even though the closing of five neighborhood churches last year brought a little different feel to the festival, the newly merged Resurrection Parish is bringing back old favorites, which Balta said is really what Ethnic Fest is all about.

"They want to socialize a little bit, reminisce a little bit, maybe even sometimes tell a few fibs - ha ha -- and get together and reminisce about their days in Johnstown," he said.

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