Erie Times-News
Published July 6, 2007
by Rachel Kaufman

Their cupboards went bare then, but not this year.

Members of Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, masterminds behind the Greek Festival in Erie, are so committed to hospitality that when they ran out of food in 1989, the first year, they went home and made more.

After attendance at the first festival exceeded all expectations, “everybody had to go home and clean out their freezers and bake new pastries, ” said Tom Parthenakis, the co-grand chairman of the church’s 2007 festival, or panegyri.

Panegyri (“festival” in Greek; pronounced paw-nee-yee-ree), a summer tradition in Erie, draws people from around the region and from as far away as California. It starts today.

Assumption Greek Orthodox Church started the panegyri as a fundraiser for the building’s upkeep 19 years ago. It’s a small parish, with only 80 families. But somehow that’s all it takes to host a party that draws more than 30,000 people.

This year, they’re prepared.

Read the rest of this story on GoErie.com, or contact me for more.