A beautiful day of celebration was enjoyed by all at St. Mary Church in Chardon for the second annual Oktoberfest event...
Oktoberfest and the Story of Walter’s Mysterious Strudel
A beautiful day of celebration was enjoyed by all at St. Mary Church in Chardon for the second annual Oktoberfest event. This year’s event was planned to be bigger and better than the last featuring an outdoor polka Mass, homemade German food, beers on tap from Hofbrauhaus Cleveland and games and fun for the whole family.
St. Mary’s pastor, Father Scott Goodfellow said, “Our second annual parish Oktoberfest was a big hit with all ages. It’s a fun way to celebrate our faith and community together. We hope to continue to grow the Oktoberfest organically each year as we celebrate our faith in Christ together.”
Fr. Scott joined The Shotskis band on stage for a few songs, as they performed Polka hits for the crowd. Guests were treated to Chef Chris Sotkovsky’s German feast including schnitzel, pierogies, sausage and kraut, cabbage rolls, pretzels with mustard and beer cheese, as well as Bavarian flatbread.
A traditional Masskrugstemmen, or beer stein holding contest, brought serious competition among contestants crowning three categories of winners: Children – Charlie Intihar and Olivia Satyshur; Women – Ashley Burr; and Men – Fr. David Stavarz from Holy Family Parish in Parma, who also won the pretzel eating contest.
The strudel showdown baking competition brought some mystery to this year’s event. Six judges were given secret samples from all entries coordinated by Cathi Mezzopera. When the voting was tallied, Cathi shared the results, “Walter won.” But Walter was not on the list of people registered, and there was no phone number attached to his name.
Cathi said, “We needed to figure out who Walter was. We did so by saving the bag with his name and more importantly, the picture that was attached to the strudel.”
The child’s drawing gave the event organizers a clue to check in with the St. Mary’s students. It turns out second-grader Walter Staraitis, along with some help from his busia (Polish for grandma), Elizabeth Staraitis, nee Gerba, were the winners.
Walter’s dad Anthony said, “Walter became very excited after he heard Fr. Scott’s announcement after Mass regarding the upcoming St. Mary’ Octoberfest and his call for entries to the strudel showdown. Walter went home and immediately called his busia to make his favorite cherry strudel for the showdown. Unfortunately, I don’t have any specifics on the recipe, but his great-grandparents are from Warsaw, Poland, so I would have to assume it has some old world influences. The grandparents, in Cleveland now, were planning on attending the Octoberfest specifically looking forward to the Polka Mass, but Grandma fell and broke her foot in three places and could now not attend. Being a stubborn Polish Grandma, not wanting to disappoint, she still made Walter’s Strudel. By the time I received the pastry, it was past the deadline for the online registration. Obviously after all this effort I could not tell Walter he was unable to enter his strudel so when we came to the church on Saturday afternoon for setup and volunteer training, Walter brought the strudel and his drawing to the kitchen to find Chef Chris. That was the last I saw of it.”
Walter collected the prize on behalf of his grandma and delivered it as she recovers to hopefully join the event next year.
Guests young and old also enjoyed rides in the Rocket Ship Car, formerly of Euclid Beach, inflatables, face-painting, balloon art, The Kid At Art bus and old-fashioned games like the cake walk. All activities were provided for free thanks to the event’s sponsors: Madison Veterinary, Shaun Woolard-Junction Auto, Little Mountain Country Club, Dumpster Bandit, McCaskey Landscaping, Chardon VFW Post 6519, Rios Landscaping, Lighthouse Advisors, Mentor Lumber and church ministry groups.
