Italian fryers support school

There are many measures of summer, but in Douglaston, the bookends of the season are Saint Anastasia’s Church Carnivals.
Each year, on the last weekend of May and again on the last weekend in September, the schoolyard of the parish, at the eastern junction of Alameda Avenue and Northern Boulevard, turns into a Carnival, complete with scream-eliciting rides, games and oh yes, food.
Tucked away at the corner of the school building, a crew of volunteer parents and parishioners staff the food tent, selling French Fries, burgers and hot dogs as fast as they can serve them, and feverishly producing a New York City Italian favorite, Zeppoli.
On the very first night, Wednesday, May 28, dedicated dollopers had spooned 50 gallons of flavored dough into massive pots of hot canola oil.
Minutes later, they retrieved hundreds of these fritters, to be dusted with confectioner’s sugar and sold by the half dozen in brown paper bags, to clamoring lines of neighborhood kids and adults.
“This is found money for the school,” said Joseph Mattone, Jr., in a rare break from manning his paddles and fry-pots.
Brian Burke, another Douglaston resident and longtime volunteer, spent most of the evening on a side burner, making French Fries.
“This is a great event for everybody,” he said, looking just the slightest bit fried himself, from the pace of trying to keep up with the demand.
Money aside, the camaraderie that develops amidst blazing barbeque grills and steaming cauldrons of oil, cannot be denied.
“You meet new people and become friends for years,” observed Carl Mattone as he switched from spooning dough to spell his brother at retrieving the browned confections for sugaring and sale.
Service at the Carnival is part of the parental involvement philosophy at St. Anastasia’s Roman Catholic Parochial School. Volunteers sign in and out, and their hours are carefully recorded. They are expected to perform 12 hours of service.
As the evening progressed, Burke was promoted from French Fries to spooning, despite “not having enough vowels in his name,” according to one or the other of the Mattones - in the gruff good humor that comes from hours at risk of third-degree burns.
The crew will no doubt be back at summer’s end, frying for a good cause.