MILESTONE ADDS JOY TO ARMENIAN PARISH FEST
By Bethany Bump
Albany Times Union
June 11 2009
In a kitchen at St. Peter’s Armenian Church, staff and family shove
hands into freezing ground beef and lamb and smash away. Two hundred
and fifty pounds of beef and lamb need to be mixed, molded and seasoned
into kebabs for the church’s annual festival in Watervliet on Saturday
and Sunday.
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"Tuck and roll. You’ve gotta tuck and roll," said John "Frenchie"
Ekmalian, vice chairman of the event, as he rolled the meat in his
palms last Thursday. "It can’t be too smooth, but it needs to be
mixed fairly well."
Ekmalian grins despite the freezing-cold meat. He says the biggest
attraction of the previously one-day festival isn’t the amusement
rides or the dancing, but the seasoned meat.
The 250 pounds of meat, Ekmalian said, should make about 1,000
kebabs. They’ll prepare three batches of meat, for a total of about
3,000 kebabs when the festival rolls around this weekend.
It’s Ekmalian’s eighth year preparing for the church’s biggest
fundraiser, and in that time he and staff have doubled St. Peter’s
annual profit from $8,000 to anywhere from $15,000-18,000, depending
on the year.
Ekmalian said they extended the more than 70-year-old community event
to two days this year because of its growing popularity.
"Everyone comes — the whole community. We’re open to everyone, not
just our congregation," he said. "People like experiencing our Armenian
culture with the food and the dance. It’s a fun event for everyone."
Ekmalian and church trustee Charles Tutunjian discussed St. Peter’s
history as they prepared six tubs of meat, adding parsley, seasoning
and tomato paste.
The parish celebrates its 110th anniversary this year: it was founded
in Green Island in 1899. For the past 30 years the Armenian church
has been at 100 Troy-Schenectady Road in Watervliet.
The church has a congregation of about 250 families — most Armenian,
but not all, Ekmalian said.
"We go where the Armenians are. We could expand, but we really serve
the local community," Tutunjian said. "There has been a growth in our
population in different parts of the country, but we meet the needs
of the community here."
>From the kitchen, children and parents could be heard singing and
clapping along to Armenian folk music. The children, part of Albany’s
Sipan Dance Group, dance year round to prepare for an end-of-the-year
recital at their school, as well as this weekend’s Armenian festival.
A wide array of Armenian food will be available at the festival,
including lamb, chicken and losh kebabs, lahmejune, lamb and chicken
shish kebabs, cheese beoreg and Armenian desserts including paklava,
cheoreg, simit, kadayif, boorma and kurabia. The parish plans to offer
American cuisine as well, such as hot dogs, cakes, cookies and pies.
The cost will be anywhere from $2 to $17 a plate, and the money will
go toward the church fund and bills from a 2008 renovation project.
Activities include a Saturday night Tavloo (backgammon) tournament,
amusement rides, pony rides, and Armenian and Middle-Eastern music
provided by a local DJ for dancing.
"We’re just hoping for some nice weather, a good turnout, and a good
time for the kids," Ekmalian said smiling, elbow deep in ground beef.
Bethany Bump, a Times Union intern, will be a junior at Syracuse
University this fall. She can be reached at 454-5460 or by e-mail
at bbump@timesunion.com.
St. Peter’s Armenian Festival Where: St. Peter’s Armenian Church,
100 Troy-Schenectady Road, Watervliet When: 4-8 p.m. Saturday; noon-4
p.m. Sunday Cost: Free admission, various charges for meals Contact:
274-3673; stpeter.armch@prodigy.net