The Unsung Heroes of the Festival: Behind-the-Scenes Volunteers Make It Happen
By the Festival Committee
When you arrive at the festival, excited to enjoy the music, food, and fun, it’s easy to overlook the incredible work that happens long before the gates open. Behind every successful festival is a dedicated team of volunteers who work tirelessly to ensure everything runs smoothly. These unsung heroes put in countless hours preparing the grounds, setting up infrastructure, and keeping things organized so attendees can have an unforgettable experience.
It all begins with the electrical crew, who carefully lay out and connect the power needed for lighting, entertainment stages, and food and game tents. Without them, the festival would literally be in the dark! Next comes the setup crew, who work in the weeks leading up to the festival, setting up fencing, signage, tents, and seating areas to create a welcoming environment for everyone.
Once the festival is in full swing, the trash and recycling team, along with the food tent volunteers, make sure the festival stays clean and eco-friendly, helping us all enjoy a beautiful and sustainable space. Let’s not forget the parking volunteers, the first faces guests see, ensuring everyone arrives efficiently and safely. Their careful planning and direction prevent chaos and keep traffic flowing smoothly. While these roles often go unnoticed, they are essential and frequently the last volunteer slots to fill.
All of the festival's favorite areas are back! Over the fall and winter, we've made several tweaks and improvements to each area. Most of the leaders were first-timers last year, and all of them are excited to return in 2025, eager to serve the parish once again!
Jerry Rabin is all-in once again, overseeing the Blackjack Tent, where he’s making adjustments to security, signage, and volunteer assignments. He plans to offer Texas Hold 'em throughout the weekend, provided he can secure volunteer dealers. Jerry is also assessing table arrangements and overall setup to ensure comfort for both dealers and players. If needed, he’ll offer training to prepare dealers for the festival weekend. It’s fun and easy—make sure to support Jerry by volunteering for shifts and joining in the action at the Blackjack Tent!
Veteran-leader of our Major Awards team, Mike McManus works closely with the office staff to coordinate tickets and mailings. Beginning in late winter, their coordination ensures you receive your raffle tickets in the spring! Throughout the weekend, Mike will oversee the Major Awards booth, which will also serve as the home base for Split the Pot this year. Be sure to listen for his voice—he’ll be the announcer throughout the event!
Michelle Tomblin and Christine Sawyer return to lead the Kids Game Area, building on last year’s successes. They’ve refreshed the game selection and added new games tailored to each age group, including exciting additions like Crack the Safe and Shut the Box. Their dedication ensures this area will continue to be a favorite memory-making spot for years to come. They’re currently seeking booth captains and have many volunteer opportunities available—sign up now and get involved!
Joanna Manchak’s keen eye continues to manage the prizes for the Kids Games. Her experience ensures the prizes rotate and evolve each year. This year, she’s thrilled to offer a wider variety of prizes for all ages, including over 400 plush animals purchased for one of the kids' favorite games. The prize area is also seeking donations from community partners and parishioners to offer higher-value prizes, adding even more excitement.
Lisa and Chuck Ciccia, Festival Currency extraordinaires, are returning to the helm and excited to feature large-sized tickets this year. We’re incredibly grateful for their leadership! After venturing into new territory last year, they’ve used the lessons learned to make this year even better. Festival Currency will now be used for food, desserts, drinks, and kids' games, offering more flexibility and simplicity. Kids' games will now operate with tickets instead of the silver tokens from previous years. Lisa and Chuck are working hard to ensure the festival runs smoothly, remains secure, and allows for easy tracking at each booth. They’re looking for many volunteers to help patrons get settled and enjoy the festival. Your support in volunteering at one of their booths would be greatly appreciated—sign up today!
Where would our Adult Games be without Doug and Annie Tereba? Doug has been working hard to revise the traffic flow through the adult games and fine-tune the game mix. He’s introducing a new game, Bourbon Toss, while retiring Instant Bingo for the year, replacing it with Honey Bee. The beloved Bars and Bells will still be part of the fun! Thanks to the returning booth captains, and if you’d like to get involved, we still have four booths in need of a captain and plenty of volunteer slots available.
Rich and Nicole Carmel, along with their family, are taking on something new this year! On Sunday, they’ll lead a variety of games and friendly competitions near the stage for kids of all ages. We’re excited to see the joy and smiles this will bring to everyone!
We are excited to announce that the Knights of Columbus will once again be running our popular Chicken and St. Max Grille booths at this year’s festival, serving up delicious food! In addition, we are thrilled to have dedicated families returning to host the Vietnamese and Italian tents, bringing back their amazing flavors and cultural traditions. It’s shaping up to be a food-tastic event!
We are excited to bring back some festival favorites in the cool, air-conditioned gym! With nearly 100 themed baskets catering to all ages and interests, you'll find plenty of fan favorites: Kate Spade, Coca-Cola, American Girl Dolls, Margaritaville (last chance!), Barbie, large outdoor games, Little Tikes, bourbon, wine for adults, Legos for ages 6 to 96, and the ever-popular Mary Garden. There will be two drawing times on Sunday, and pre-sale tickets are available at a highly discounted rate—purchase yours before the deadline!
The Wine Pull is also making a return! For just $15 per chance, you could win a bottle of wine. Among the bottles, at least five will be "Golden Bottles," each valued at $50 or more. We’re also accepting wine bottle donations through May 25 at the parish office. A note for our generous donors: our parishioners especially enjoy full-bodied reds and red blends!
This year’s Silent Auction is bigger and better than ever! Don’t think you’ll be in town during festival weekend? No problem—simply use your phone to place a bid on fantastic items, including sports and music tickets, homemade baklava, rounds of golf, parish reserved parking, vacation trips, and CEI pop culture and sports memorabilia. Bidding opens at midnight on May 6th!
Help contribute to our Dessert Café by donating your favorite homemade treats—Christmas cookies, pizzelles, brownies, kolaches, decorated sugar cookies, Pope Cream Cake, pies, and other holiday specialties. Donations are needed each day of the festival. If you're out of town or don’t have time to bake, you can still help by donating a gift card by June 1, which will go toward purchasing more treats!
One of the many roles Laureen Listermann will be handling this year is signage. For years, she worked alongside Bill Harkins, helping to organize the festival. While she couldn’t attend in person last year due to her son’s wedding, Laureen still shared her invaluable expertise in areas like kid games, food, and drinks. This year, she continues to contribute by creating signage that will help our patrons navigate the festival easily and have a positive experience at each booth. She’ll also be printing the sponsorship banners. Always helpful, highly skilled, and ready to jump in wherever needed—thank you, Laureen!
These behind-the-scenes volunteers are the backbone of our festival, and their dedication deserves recognition. While this update features a small number of the many vital hands and roles throughout our Festival, we hope to recognize all who have dedicated their invaluable time, expertise, donations, and support to ensure its success, year after year. This event is truly for the parishioners, by the parishioners, and it takes many individuals, each contributing in their own way, to make it all come together. We’re looking for more dedicated volunteers to help make this year’s festival the best one yet. By volunteering, you’ll not only guarantee a booth stays open but also strengthen our St. Max community, building new relationships and deepening existing ones. Please take a moment to explore the volunteer opportunities, sign up to captain a booth, and grab a few slots. Every “YES!” helps make our parish-wide success possible. Thank you for your enthusiasm and for making this weekend unforgettable!