By K. NANCOO-RUSSELL
Freeport News Reporter
The much-anticipated annual Mary Star of the Sea Parish Bazaar will be scaled down this year to include just three events, organizers announced yesterday.
The traditional BINGO and raffle are still on, while a new addition to the event will be a steak-out. The date for this year's event is Saturday, November 15.
According to the committee chairman Rudy Sawyer, the decision to downsize the popular event was a hard one to make, but one that the committee thought was best considering the island's lagging economy.
"It's been scaled down this year. Part of it is certainly trying to see if we could be responsive to the condition of the economy," he said.
"As we sat as a committee and looked at the past events which have all been very successful, we decided to certainly still go ahead and have the event and we decided to go in the three main areas that brought the greatest returns for us and we would concentrate on those. I expect it will still be a very big event."
Sawyer stressed that all the proceeds of the event, which is organized at the parish level, go toward Catholic education and is distributed to Catholic High and Mary, Star of the Sea Primary.
The first-place prize for the raffle this year is a red 2008 Chevy Colorado truck. There will also be 12 other prizes. Tickets will be on sale at the site until 10 p.m. and the raffle will be drawn at 10 p.m. on Saturday night.
The BINGO game will be held over two days, Friday 14 and Saturday 15.
"On Friday night, BINGO goes from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., on Saturday children's bingo will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and adult BINGO will be held from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.," explained Sawyer.
At the steak-out, he added, persons will have a choice of steak, chicken or Cornish hens.
"This will be a steak-out with a difference for every hour on the hour there will be drawings for prizes and everyone who had purchased and picked up their dinner will be eligible to win a gift certificate from various businesses on the island," he said.
"Tickets are on sale for $10 from committee members, the church office, the Mary, Star of the Sea school, the Catholic High School, and at the church after mass on Saturday and Sunday."
The Lions Club will make its presence felt at the event as well, and will be selling hot-dogs, hamburgers and soft drinks on site.
Additionally, the Women's League of the church will host a bake sale, and plants and vegetables will also be on sale.
"The full Bazaar is a tradition on this island so it was a hard decision to make and I won't be surprised if next year we will be back to the full event but certainly we thought it will be worth the while this year to scale back," said Sawyer.
