From the Wausau Daily Herald: Our Savior National Catholic Church celebrates Polish heritage

Even if your heritage is French and Indian, you become a little bit Polish when you’re at Our Savior’s Polish Fest.

The annual festival of Our Savior National Catholic Church in Mosinee just has that way about it, at least according to Bucky Bucknell, 69, of Mosinee. Bucknell, who has the French and Indian heritage, has been volunteering at the event since he started attending the church 22 years ago. Both the festival and the church tend to draw people in, Bucknell said.

July 7 and 8 marked the 37th year the church has played host to Polish Fest, held in the Mosinee Rec Center and featuring Polish food such as sausage and kraut, golabki (a cabbage, rice and meat dish) and pierogies. The celebration of all things Polish also features plenty of Polish polka music, Polish beer and some activities such as raffles and a rummage sale.

The food is the big draw, Bucknell said.

“It ain’t run to the store and buy the stuff,” he said. “Everybody puts a lot of pride into it.”

On Saturday, people stood in line to fill up on the food — the pierogies were so good they tempted non-Poles to add a c, z, y and k to their last name.

The festival drew Russ and Theresa Napiwocki, both 45, north from Stevens Point.

The couple love attending church picnics, especially if they feature polka music. “I’ve been dancing since I was 6,” Russ said.

The Polish food was icing on the cake. “You just can’t get food like this in a restaurant,” Theresa said.

Vacen Osowski, 92, of Mosinee founded Polish Fest in 1975. He knew he had a hit on his hand when “we went through 110 half-barrels of beer, and we had 5,000 pierogies and we ran out.”

He ran the festival for about 15 years, but now he just helps out as he can.

Osowski said the food has always been a draw, for those of Polish heritage or not.

“The people like Polish food. That’s all there is to it,” he said.