Bounty of the baklava brigade
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The "boss" of this crew is 75, the "second boss" is 81, and their assembly line yields thousands of cookies, hundreds of cakes and sweets and 180 large pans of baklava — a Greek delicacy.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Catherine Bukes, 75, and Fannie Proskefalas, 81, and a group of dedicated bakers have shown up every Thursday since May to mix, shape and bake the cookies and pastries for the annual two-day Greek Festival coming later this month.
Marianna Klimenko, center, and Harriet Medes, roll Greek cookies from dough mixed by Fannie Proskefalas, behind them.
"This is the best Greek festival I've ever seen in my 25 years as a priest," said the Rev. Dr. Nicholas V. Gamvas, priest of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral, which sponsors the festival. "Without these women, there wouldn't be a Greek festival at all."
Most of the volunteers are members of the ladies' auxiliary of the cathedral's Philoptochos Society. The Greek word "philoptochos" means "friends of the poor."
Inside a small Makiki church kitchen and adjacent workroom this week, Bukes supervised a crew of eight women making kourabiethes, a Greek sugar cookie that melts in your mouth as you bite into it.
"It's an egg batter, flour cookie," Proskefalas said. "It's very simple, good with coffee, tea, milk. It's not a sweet-tooth cookie. But when it comes out of the oven, yum."
What: 24th annual Greek Festival When: Noon to 9 p.m. Aug. 28-29 Where: McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park Featuring: Live Greek music, dancing and food. Admission: $3 Information: 521-7220
The volunteers work between eight and 12 hours, measuring the dough, forming the cookies, carrying the trays to the oven and back and applying the powered sugar on top.
Festival in park
By the time the festival starts at the end of this month, they will have made 6,000 cookies, hundreds of sweets and about 180 large pans of baklava with 50 pieces each.
The recipes have been handed down from Bukes' mother and godmother, who moved here from Greece. The treats will sell for between 75 cents and $1.75 each, with proceeds benefiting the church and the charitable causes it supports.
Every year, the ladies' auxiliary raises money for a Kapi'olani Medical Center fund that helps Neighbor Island children with cancer travel to O'ahu for treatments.
The Greek Festival, now in its 24th year, is held each year around Aug. 15. The Greek community uses the festival to commemorate the dormition or "falling asleep" of the Virgin Mary. Greek Orthodox followers believe that's when the Virgin Mary achieved eternal life.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Bukes and Proskefalas have cooked for every single festival. But their work began even earlier, when the congregation was searching for a home in the '60s.
Ruth Constantine Ehrhorn sprinkles powdered sugar on Greek cookies to be sold at the festival.
"It started out because we wanted a church. We got a church," Bukes said. "Then we had a huge mortgage. So, OK, we paid the mortgage. Now, we need a new roof. I said, 'This is the last year. We are paying for the roof, right?' They said, 'No, the church needs painting.' We are going to have to find some younger people around here."
The ladies' auxiliary also bakes for Christmas and Easter fund-raisers. "They work really hard," said Tom Sofos, the Greek festival's chairman. "They just ask 'What do you need, what do you want?' and say 'I'll get it done.' Without those nice little old ladies, the whole thing would probably fall apart."
Sofos said that with the Olympics in Greece this year, the festival could be bigger than ever. He is considering putting a big-screen TV at the festival to show the Athens games.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
