Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Thank you! We had an absolutely spectacular carnival weekend. Yes, the weather was perfect all three days, but the response in attendees and participation of all the volunteers served to make this a wonderful weekend. While I cannot possibly thank everyone by name, there are a few we need to point out for their tireless efforts. Fran and Desmond Sullivan– who are the real veterans of the committee do a wonderful job in coordinating with the volunteers and the entertainment; Jim Cavuto handles the logistics, security, and parking with an eagle eye of precision to every detail. He also coordinates the Fireworks display which is the highlight of our Saturday nights events. Meg Troiano, along with Rich and Nancy Francese, are constant boots-on-the-ground, checking in with everyone, making sure that everything is running well, and everything is in place. They certainly got their steps in each day of the carnival and then some! The parish staff: Lori Ulrich handles all of our licensing, public relations, and sponsorships with humor, tact and diplomacy; and along with Jim Cavuto, manages the logistics of the carnival, a monumental task that they make appear seamless! Bob Cognat and his staff are ever-present in all aspects of the property and management of the carnival. They did a great job not only in set-up but also in returning the property to normal for school and regular parish activities by Monday morning. Margaret Roddy does a great job with the raffle, and in working as a go-between with all of the different groups. She makes sure that there are regular meetings and coordination with all of the volunteers and other committee members. Fran DeMuria manages the counters and oversees all of the financials for the weekend.

I also want to thank Principal Donahue for his efforts to bring in more volunteers this year. The presence of the teachers and staff of the school as volunteers, and even just attending the Carnival, helps the school students and their parents feel even more connected to the parish community.

Other groups from the parish: the School PTA, Father JM and the Filipino Community, the Faith Formation Office and Phil Limeri and their evangelization initiative, and Ciro Saverino and the youth group, all served to build up the community that is our parish and school.

So many volunteers – and volunteers of all ages from teenagers to octogenarians– made every aspect of this carnival feel like family.

The preliminary numbers suggest that we are pretty close to our receipts from last year, which was a banner year. While the 50/50 Raffle was down a little bit, we still did well. A list of winners and those details will be listed in next week’s bulletin.

We have already made some adjustments for next year’s Carnival, and we hope that we can continue to grow it into the future.

Thank you all again!

While there is so much more to say about other topics – I think I will hold off until next week. Let us just enjoy the great success that was St. Benedict’s Carnival 2019.

May the Lord, in his goodness, bless all of us this week.
Fr. Garry