So many volunteers, young and old, helped make this year's Serb Fest a great success. Months of planning, building, cleaning, and baking resulted in a grand celebration of sharing our Serbian culture. Many workers took time off work to help, while Dave and Beverly Suban once again faithfully came up all the way from Florida to help out. Relatives from Canada and Chicago pitched in all weekend. The new Pavilion proved invaluable to provide spacious seating and protection from the terrible storm. Temperatures in the mid 90's made working so much more difficult, especially for cevap grillers and lamb roasters, but great volunteers were up to the challenge. Sincere THANKS to all who helped in any way - hope to see you next year!

Serb Fest relies solely on the army of volunteers who spend months planning, organizing, selling tickets, baking, and preparing for the 3 day event. Some church members even take unpaid time off from work to help out. Many of these volunteers are not pictured below, but our sincere THANKS and appreciation goes out to anyone who helped in any capacity. Whether you're a palachinka princess, krofne queen, or lamb roaster, it seems that working for a common goal among your Serbian friends can be lots of fun.

Live background music is performed at Saturday's music tent by "Srpski Sinovi".

Thanks also to Borka Grimsgard for sharing some of the photos below.

Serb Fest is almost entirely staffed by volunteers of all ages. Our sincere Thank You goes out to anyone who helped in any way. Pictured below is only a part of the hundreds of great volunteers. This year presented difficult challenges for chairpersons Melanie and Vinko because of our church president Dennis Svilar's absence due to illness. Everyone stepped up to the challenge and pulled together to make it a successful event. Thankfully, Dennis is slowly recovering and surely very proud of his team.

Sincere THANKS to anyone who worked for months planning and organizing, scheduled volunteers, chaired the golf outing, solicited sponsors, placed signs all over town, worked the cash room, baked at home, sold baked goods, parked cars, pulled 54 cars out of the mud Saturday night, made repairs, painted safety stripes, worked the food line, tended bar, sold tickets, drove carts, supervised inflatables for kids, made 400 nut rolls - 1000+ strudels -  2000 palachinke - 1000 krofne - countless sarmas, ordered supplies, washed dishes, set up tables and chairs, cleaned up Monday, worked the Sunday School tent, set up the historical exhibit, roasted lambs and pigs, performed folklore dances, performed in the combined choir, sold raffle tickets, cleaned tables, and for months helped transform the kitchen and storage facilities to a beautiful workplace with a walk - up service window.

Many volunteers took time off from their jobs or used vacation time to help. Hundreds of sore feet and backs later, we'll all be back again next year to do it all over again. There's a special love and commitment we have to our Church and to each other in preserving what our parents and grandparents built for us. Thank you all and Ziveli! See you next year, "Ako Bog Da".

All week long, volunteers will be needed for general cleaning, set - up, and preparation. Call the church office, or just show up, we'll be glad to see you. Snezana has a list of committee chairmen, and you can reach her at (219) 736-9191. We need everyone's help. If you can't do physical work, perhaps you can sell raffle tickets to friends and family,  sell golf sponsorships, sell food tickets, or bake for the fantastic Serbian Bakery. We appreciate everyone's effort in making this year's festival a huge success. Thank you all in advance.

Pictured below is Darah Kelley with grandparents Dave and Beverly Suban. She's their  granddaughter from Tallahassee, Florida. At age 17, she's already in her 5th year of working the food line. At age 12, grandma Bev got her involved and now her parents plan a small vaction around the annual Serb Fest. Thanks again to Dave, Bev, and Darah for all their hard work and most of all their commitment and support.

This festival is staffed by volunteers, a commitment that is truly appreciated. The second and third generation is represented in many families. Without our volunteers, we couldn't have the festival, a fund-raiser that our church depends on. Thank you all once again! The photos below are only a small representation of the great number of volunteers.

Please take a turn at hosting a family-sponsored Sunday Pot-Luck Luncheon. October 19th is available, so please contact Verica Crnkovich at (219) 662-7367 by Tuesday evening. We ask that our member families join with 2-3 other families to host a luncheon. Remember that your Luncheon Donations directly benefit our Church. Paper goods and coffee are provided, and Simo will handle the Bar and soft drinks. Let's keep this going. The menu can  be themed or simple, just be creative.

The volunteers are the foundation for the success of this monumental event, and we'd like to THANK each and every one of them. Many have worked for months preparing nut rolls and strudels, while others worked feverishly to remodel the garage and transform it into a functioning kitchen. Planning the layout, utilities, and set-up took weeks. Raffle Ticket sellers had an especially big challenge this year. Preparations in all areas were covered by our parishoners and our dear friends. Moving Serb Fest to Merrillville in such a visible location has drawn many new local faces this year. And of course, with all your help, we handled it. Thanks to everyone!

(Click photo to enlarge)