Glory to Thee O God, Glory to Thee!
2007 Russian Festival – Thank-you

Glory to Thee O God, Glory to Thee!  We sincerely offer thanks unto God for His great mercy and bountiful blessings, which He has granted unto us during this year’s 34th Russian Festival.  Through His mercy and by the prayerful intercessions of the Holy Hierarch John, Archbishop of San Francisco our parish conducted a very successful festival. It was truly inspiring to see such selfless cooperation, commitment and patience exhibited by everyone who volunteered during these last several months as we prepared for the Festival and during the Festival last weekend.  So many people offered countless hours (even taking several days of vacation time from work) for the sake of the festival and the benefit of our parish. 

Dear brothers and sisters, we offer our thanks to all of you who attended this year’s festival. It was truly heart-warming to see so many of our friends, neighbors and visitors come again to our annual festival. Thousands of guests reverently toured our church, learned about Orthodoxy, partook of some tasty ethnic food, purchased many unique and beautiful souvenirs and enjoyed great cultural music and dance rarely found in today’s hectic world. It was indeed our pleasure to welcome all of you to our 34th Annual Russian Festival and we hope to see you again real soon.

We extend our most sincere and cordial thanks to the Chairman and Co-Chairpersons of the festival: Albert Blaszak, David & Selina Eichelberger; Art Lisowsky; Michael Mickel; Kay Plaskowitz.  They began planning months ago, coordinated the many cooking and baking days, ensured that all of the elements of the festival – raffle, program book, licenses, permits, booths, tent, various equipment, entertainment, food supplies, etc. – were timely and efficiently addressed. And we offer our most sincere thanks to everyone who helped prepare the breads each Saturday, make the kolbasa, vareniki, golubsty and many, many delicious sweets and other baked goods; and thanks to all those who worked on the ad book, sold raffle tickets, worked in the booths, hall, kitchen or in the church and thanks to everyone who helped set up the hall, the street and then helped to clean up at the conclusion of the festival. It is next to impossible to list all of your names. What’s important is that God knows and He has seen your labors. All of you gave your heart and soul to ensure the success of the festival. Whether you offered seven hours, seventy hours or seven hundred hours you offered up your labors as a sacrifice of love to God. May God bless all of you with peace, health, love, prosperity and many, many years !  Многая лета !

Многая Лета !