Church celebrates 100th in unique way: Polka Mass

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — St. Joseph’s Church continued its yearlong 100th anniversary celebration Sunday with an outdoor Mass and festival for their annual centennial celebration. Donned in traditional Polish attire, residents attended the church’s outdoor polka Mass, which was followed with lunch and several raffles aimed at raising money for the parish. A task that co-chairwoman of the centennial committee, Barbara Yablonski, said was not easy. “There are a lot of people who worked all week to get this going,” said Ms. Yablonski. “We put in 60 or more hours just to get it ready. This is a really special event and we are hoping for a good turnout.” Although the church has been open for a century, Ms. Yablonski said the outdoor Masses and musical festivals have been something the church has done in the last three decades. “Whenever we’ve done a Polish picnic or a festival we try to do a polka Mass,” said Ms. Yablonski. “This is the 30th year we’ve done something like this one way or another. The money we make here today is all for the church.” The Maestro’s Men, a traditional Polish music group who have been playing together for 10 years and operate out of Colchester, Conn., provided the music. “They have been together for 10 years and they generally play festivals similar to this one,” said band manager Karen Olszewski. “We will be playing polka and Polish music for the Mass but then afterword they will play some other kinds of music for the actual dance.” The Rev. Thomas Tokarz, who has been a priest at the church for the last 14 years, said no specific projects were planned for the money, but it is always important to be financially ready for anything. “Anything can pop up that will end up costing us something,” said Mr. Tokarz. “We will end up using this money mainly to maintain the church. This year is different because we together are celebrating a hundred years as a parish. So it is a really special event.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 8/11/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 189)