Funnel Cake Fridays prove a hit for Sharpsburg-Aspinwall Rotary

If it’s a Friday in July, you can find Bill Crooks flipping funnel cakes behind a sizzling hot fryer at Kennedy Park in Sharpsburg.

A line of hungry people snakes around the concession stand, eager to sample the festive fare offered by the Sharpsburg-Aspinwall Rotary.

“We do about 80 funnel cakes every Friday,” said Crooks, a longtime Rotary member who dishes up a powdered sugar-covered pastry every couple minutes.

“When we used to have Guyasuta Days, it was double that number.”

Crooks is one of about a dozen Rotary members to work the Funnel Cake Fridays event from 5 to 8 p.m.

There is one scheduled date remaining, July 29, with the potential to return Aug. 5 if the borough hosts a movie night in the park.

Club President Eric Gazica said the food stand is an effort toward community outreach.

“It’s fun to see people who used to come to Guyasuta Days and connect with them,” he said.

The concession stand raises awareness of the Rotary and helps put money in the coffers for several local projects supported by the group.

Rotary International is a humanitarian service organization with 1.4 million members.

Founded in 1926, the Sharpsburg-Aspinwall Rotary Club has hosted bingo at the VA hospital in O’Hara, volunteered at Aspinwall Meals on Wheels, sponsored youth athletic teams and donated substantially to the Sharpsburg Community Library.

The group has paid for playground equipment, Free Little Libraries, elementary book donations and medical supplies. For years, Rotary’s global project was to abolish polio. Clubs around the world raised and spent several billion dollars on the effort.

This past spring, the local club hosted a funnel cake stand to benefit anti-war efforts in Ukraine. They were able to donate $2,000 to purchase refugee tents with cots.

The Rotary reaches a lot of people with the simple food booth, members said.

As many as 100 people are drawn to the park along North Canal Street each week for hot dogs, fried dough and cold drinks — despite the temperatures which soared into the 90s on several occasions.

They make it look easy, but there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.

Volunteers turn out at least 90 minutes before cooking to prepare the ingredients. Jerry Jacoby of Wexford mans the frying pan, where several hundred pierogies are drenched in butter and fried to perfection.

“We’ll do up to 50 orders a night,” he said, tossing the potato pockets into the air.

Kerry Schenker of Oakmont has been a Rotary member for 37 years. The club meets at noon Thursdays at Walnut Grill at Waterworks Mall, and Schenker said people are welcome to check it out.

“We do a lot to help the community,” Schenker said. “We have a fantastic membership.”

Nine-year-old Lizzy Hess couldn’t wait until the Rotary booth opened Friday, July 22. She showed up early with her dad, Christopher, to get a funnel cake before the booth even opened.

The pair sat in the park and ate while steam was still rising from the hot dough.

“We come every week,” Lizzy said. “It’s really good.”