Looking for an old fashioned church chicken dinner?
You can get your fill Sunday at the Holy Rosary Annual Chicken Dinner and Festival — the last of its kind on the peninsula.
There was a time each summer when all local Catholic churches put on a chicken dinner and raffle. Now Holy Rosary is the only parish chicken dinner left standing.
In June, St. Wenceslaus, the longeststanding chicken dinner with a 114-year history, discontinued the event after the church was designated a “limited use” parish by the Diocese of Gaylord.
This distinction was effective July 1.
St. Michael the Archangel in Suttons Bay has replaced their chicken dinner with a pig roast, held most years on the second Sunday of August.
And Lake Leelanau St. Mary moved their chicken dinner date from August to the second week in July and discontinued the event soonafter.
“We’re hoping for the best and planning for the worst,” said Kristen (Pleva) Rethoret, who is no stranger to the annual parish celebration. As a youngster, she and her siblings would regularly staff the kids games and were given ageappropriate tasks as they grew up. Today she’s the point person for the event, which involves an estimated 200 volunteers, many of whom work on the project throughout the course of the calendar year. “We want to give visitors and people throughout a wonderful experience.”
The menu includes its famous “Smaczne” baked chicken, homemade dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetable, dinner roll, coleslaw, dessert and beverage.
An estimated 1,500 meals are planned, up slightly from the 1,470 who dined at Holy Rosary last year.
There’s a lot that goes into the summer celebration.
“It’s all hands on deck parishwide,” Rethoret said.
All men from the parish and boys 15 or older will be raising the tent on church grounds Friday night.
Saturday a behind-the-scenes group will sort chicken, preparing it for baking while taking some smaller pieces (like wings) for dressing and gravy.
Many of the volunteers
worked for years in the same role.
“My dad, (Dale Pleva) makes the best potatoes and has been doing it for years,” Rethoret said Crews will spend much of the day Saturday doing more prep work including packaging pies for desserts.
The big day starts at 6 a.m. with crews coming in to bake chicken and ready other sides on the menu.
Dorothy and Ed Miller of Cedar have been working the ovens for years.
Meals will be served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dine-in and takeout.
Adult dinners and take-outs are $20 for adults; $10 for kids’ meals (dine in only); kids 5 and under eat free of charge.
The church grounds will be bustling with kids games, a
LAST REMAINING EVENT
country store, and a huge raffle.
Joan Gauthier and her sister Shirley Mikowski, have chaired the raffle for 20 years.
“When we began, it was just quilts raffled off,” said Gauthier. “Then we expanded it to include cash prizes.”
The top prize is $5,000 cash; there are two $1,500 prizes and three or four $1,000 cash prizes.
“It’s all from donations,” Gauthier said. “And many of them are in memory of a family member. My siblings and I go in together for one of the cash prizes in memory of our parents,” A total of 61 prizes will be awarded as part of the raffle. There are many smaller items offered, including rounds of golf at The Old Course, SugarLoaf and Crystal Mountain not to mention threegallon tubs of ice cream and more.
For more information call the church at 228-5249.
