On Saturday, June 25, 2016, beyond our expectations, the church grounds and the school hall of our parish swelled with neighbors and those who traveled quite a distance, primarily UkrainianAmericans, but mostly non-Ukrainians, to appreciate Ukrainian culture, crafts, foods and entertainment at the parish festival. Throughout the sun filled day, more than 2000 guests, including His Grace, Metropolitan Stefan Soroka, Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, the Honorable Wilda Diaz, Mayor of the City of Perth Amboy, NJ, could be seen enjoying themselves, eating the delicious Ukrainian food, listening to lively Ukrainian music, socializing with friends and neighbors, and enjoying the entertainment of our incredible Ukrainian dance performances. The Festival Committee and its chairperson, Mr. Ronald Mascenik, would like to thank everyone who came to the festival, purchased raffle tickets, or made a donation to the event. Our Festival was a huge success, thanks to the incredible work of so many volunteers. Thank you to everyone – the Festival Committee who spent many weeks of planning and organizing, volunteers who gave up their valuable free time to prepare our traditional Ukrainian food by working many days in a row cooking at the kitchen, to our parish secretary who handled pre-sales, ordering and so many details, ad booklet organizer, ladies who baked, volunteers who decorated the hall, were in charge of money and gifts raffles, organized church tour, set up our big tent, picked up food at stores, vendor’s organizer, ticket booths sellers, stage/sound person, security, MCs, setup and cleanup crews, servers at the kitchen and bake table, parish dancers and singers, volunteers who picked up trash and washed tables and all the forgotten helpers who made the festival a great success. We especially want to thank our main sponsor "Meest-America, Inc" that provides international delivery of packages and all the sponsors whose support was crucial to our success. From a financial standpoint, this year’s festival provided a "NICE BUMP of $2,000" over last year. Gross Income – $43,650.00, Total Expenses – $18,115.16, Net Profit – $25,534.84. As your pastor, I was so proud to see so many people working together as ONE PARISH FAMILY. It was another proof that Assumption Parish shines when we all work together as one family! Thank you and may God bless you for using His gifts.