116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Volunteers work around the clock making kolaches
Crews of volunteers will work through the night making kolaches for the drive-up sale beginning at 7 a.m. Friday in the St. Ludmila Elementary School parking lot, 215 21st Ave. SW.
By about 9:30 or 10 a.m. Friday, about 800 dozen kolaches will sell out. By Sunday afternoon, more than 5,000 dozen kolaches will be sold at the annual St. Ludmila Kolach Festival.
This is the second year Karen Billick, 42, of Cedar Rapids, has been in charge of the kolach baking.
She trained under longtime organizer Irma Kelly, who died of cancer in March 2009 at age 78.
“Last year was the first festival without her,” Billick says. “I feel much better this year.”
Among her duties are ordering the bags of kolach mix and buckets of fruit fillings and scheduling the hundreds of volunteers. She scheduled 12 four-hour shifts with at least 50 volunteers per shift.
“We bake all through the night then take a break Friday afternoon and start again Friday night,” Billick says.
Sheets of paper hanging on the wall are filled with names volunteering to do everything from making dough and filling kolaches to packaging boxes and selling at the drive-up and in the school.
“There's pretty much a job for everyone of all ages,” Billick says. “You can sit down or stand up.”
Jeanne Ross, 85, of Cedar Rapids, has been helping with the kolach festival for 20 years.
“I enjoy it very much,” she says. “There's so much camaraderie.”
During Thursday's first shift, Ross measured the mix which is then mixed with water, yeast and sugar.
She remembers when the kolaches were made from scratch.
“We had to break all the eggs and mix up the ingredients,” she says.
Judy Ann Quint, of Shellsburg, learned to fill kolaches for the first time Thursday.
She just joined St. Ludmila Catholic Church last week and wanted to participate.
“The members here are always smiling,” she says. “I wanted to share my talents and meet other members.”
The festival, which continues through Sunday, includes inflatable rides, kids' games and entertainment.
For more information, go to
Wendy El-Hussein (left) of Cedar Rapids and Dawn Kueny of Swisher brush melter butter around the rims of kolaches that came out of the oven as volunteers make kolaches at St. Ludmila Elementary School on Thursday, June 10, 2010, in southwest Cedar Rapids. The kolaches will be sold during the festival. Volunteers will make around 60,000 kolaches during the festival. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
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