Sunday August 30, 2009

By Staten Island Advance
--- Contributed by Deborah Young

The borough's first-ever Polish Festival brought upwards of 5,000 revelers to the South Meadow of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Livingston.

Girls with blonde pigtails wearing dresses embroidered with flowers danced on a giant soundstage while spectators balanced plates of pierogi and kielbasa on their laps and sipped sudsy beer.

Fair-skinned families strolled by tables displaying Catholic iconography and local business offerings, conversing with each other almost exclusively, in the soft, "hscz szsch" sounds of their homeland.

The borough's first-ever Polish Festival brought upwards of 5,000 revelers to the South Meadow of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Livingston earlier today -- the strong turnout surprising even organizers.

Meanwhile, a few miles away in South Beach -- outside The Vanderbilt catering hall on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk -- at an event also blessed by a clear sky, sun and slight breeze -- the first International Family Day, sought to embrace the rich mosaic that is Staten Island, bringing performers from across the globe to a festival that, for years, had catered primarily to the borough's Russians.

"We saw how there was a Greek Festival and so many other festivals and we wanted to do the same," said Rev. Marek Suchocki, pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka R.C. Church in New Brighton, the borough's only Polish-speaking parish, which sponsored the Polish festival. "This is a chance to celebrate, to be together, to invite Polish Americans to keep in touch with Polish culture and other people to get a taste of our culture."

A 2007 U.S. Census estimate shows about 20,500 people of Polish ancestry living Staten Island -- a tally not far off from what was determined in a recent study by the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union, which had a strong presence at the festival, and, according to the Rev. Suchocki, is considering opening a branch in the borough.

For Anna Rafalo, who arrived in the U.S. from Poland., being in such a vast space filled with the sights, sounds and smells of her home country brought a comfort.

"It's feels so nice," said the Arden Heights resident, who has lived in this country for 16 years, as she looked out over the lawn dotted with thousands of revelers.

Nearby, Terry Fosket, of Silver Lake, was polishing off a hand-made, soft pretzel. The third-generation Staten Islander of English decent said she had many Polish friends as a girl, and had come to the festival to learn more about the culture.

She said she also stopped by the International Family Day in South Beach, earlier in the day, where she rubbed shoulders with "lots of Russians and Orthodox Jews."

"I like to go to festivals and learn about different people. Now we have a lot more people from all over," she said. "It's the same as it always was. People want to come here and raise families."

That, in fact, was the message of the International Family Day, which featured a Ukrainian fashion designer, an Armenian singer, African drummers and Egyptian dancers alongside such American mainstays as rock music and clowns.

"The point is to show there is more than one people on Staten Island," said Arkadiy Fridman, president of the Staten Island Community Center, which sponsored the free event that drew about a 1,000 people to South Beach and highlighted the upcoming 2010 Census. "The goal of this festival is to bring everyone together."