MANSFIELD — The smell of sugar, fresh bread and almond filled the air as laughter and conversation echoed through the kitchen at St. Peter’s High School.
Volunteers chopped, mixed and baked side by side, turning simple ingredients into Easter goodies — and a busy kitchen into something much deeper than a bake sale.
The St. Peter Parish Easter Bake Sale will take place March 31 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., with lunch served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the church basement at 60 S. Mulberry St.
Shoppers will find chocolate candies, braided bread, poticas, cookies and a long list of parish favorites lining the tables.
More than a bake sale
Bake sale coordinator Ann Brown said what starts as a bake sale quickly turns into something deeper: a sense of family.
“This is what I look forward to,” Brown said. “I could hardly wait to come and be with people.”
Brown recently underwent knee surgery, but still showed up with the help of fellow volunteers.
“I get the ingredients, but they know what to do,” she said. “Everybody just has so much fun being together.”
As she mixed together an almond drizzle for the braided bread being baked, Brown said the operation runs as a team effort.
“Everybody helps out so I can do this,” she said. “I try not to overdo it — but I do. And that’s OK.”
She smiled when talking about the variety of baked goods.
“If people don’t find something they like for Easter here, they’ll never find it anywhere,” Brown said.
She said she loves every item they make and doesn’t have a favorite, unlike her husband whose favorite item is the poticas.
“It’s nice to do this because when people sit down and eat together and talk together, it brings out the humanity in us,” she said.
Brown even shared the experience with her 16-year-old grandson during his spring break visit to Ohio.
“He said to me, ‘These people are so nice and they work so hard — I wish we could do something like this back home,'” she said.
A tradition built on community
Volunteer Eileen Tomsich has spent about a decade working the bake sale, and said the sense of community keeps her coming back.
She recalled one volunteer who showed up last minute Monday morning.
“They called him the night before, and he came in at 8 a.m. with his own knife ready to chop vegetables,” she said.
The man shared with them his wife had died 12 years ago the same day, and he needed to be around others.
“He said, ‘I needed to be somewhere today with some people,” Tomsich added. “It was meant to be.”
She said his late wife, who was Filipino, inspired him to offer recipes for future bake sales.
Tomsich said moments like that explain why the group refused to cancel the event, even when they worried about moving forward without Brown at full strength.
“We were going to miss each other. We have so much fun doing this,” she said.
Volunteers scaled back production this year, making about half of their usual items, but demand remains strong.
“We’ve already sold 240 poticas,” Tomsich said. “We know we’re going to run out, but we’re doing what we can do.”
She said support comes from all directions, including people who travel to help.
One volunteer drives from Delaware each year after first coming with a friend.
Tomsich also praised the school cafeteria workers who share their space and equipment during the busy prep days.
“We couldn’t do it without all these ovens, freezers and mixers,” she said.
Students pitch in as well, carrying baked goods from freezers to the church basement where the sale takes place.
“It’s a well-oiled machine,” Tomsich said.
(Photos of the St. Peter Parish bake sale prep Monday morning. Credit: Hannah Martin)
