In our spare time this year, my husband and I said we would chair the Greek Festival at Annunciation Church in Akron this September. This requires a lot of workshops rolling phyllo filled with cheese, spinach, and custard. I have always sent the interns to the church to help out. They learn a lot about volunteering and the volunteers learn a lot about them. Now mind you the volunteers are usually more…mature folks from the church and relish the fact we have so many young people assisting.

Costa Janos–On Monday June 6^th, the interns went to Annunciation Greek Orthodox church to help out with the preparation for the Greek festival in September. Monday’s workshop was to assist the volunteers as they assembled the spinach filled hors d’oeuvres called spanakopita. My specific jobs were to melt the butter, bring the ladies what they needed (filo, spinach, butter, or empty trays), and package the spanakopita. The day seemed to go by very quickly as there was never a moment where we were not moving. The interns worked non-stop to help make the process go quickly and smoothly. At the end of the day, I feel as if this workshop was a success and I cannot wait to go back to the church for the next workshop.

David Trujillo—Spanakopita is a delicious, easy to make, Greek appetizer that is ubiquitously found in Greek homes, Greek restaurants, and Greek cultural festivals. In my experience, in the almost industrialized process of mass production of this tasty Mediterranean treat, I found the aspects of community and togetherness. While the production of 6,000 or so pieces of spanakopita is fast paced, one finds opportunities to exchange pleasantries with some of the friendliest strangers one could ever meet. One finds the people of the Greek Orthodox Church to be extremely pleasant to talk to. One finds themselves enjoying their anecdotes, their takes on different topics on life, even their instructions on how to roll a buttered spinach pie. Mass production of spanakopita brings with it more rewards than simply the knowledge of how to make spanakopita.

Sophia Avouris–My experience at the Annunciation’s Spanakopita Workshop was very fun. Despite the fact we were all working almost constantly, I found myself laughing a lot.  I felt it helped all of us to bond together working outside of the office.  I think bonding experience is important, because it is nice when the friends you make in a work setting are not confined to work, but are friends in other areas.  I really like the internship program here gives us the ability to do community service, as I believe becoming involved at a younger age makes you more likely to be involved as you get older.

Niko Frazier–Spanakopita, where do I begin? We went to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church yesterday and helped make spanakopita, a first for me. I grew up working at the festival and my church’s kitchen, but always with meats. I’ve missed out. I started out the day scooping the spinach filling onto sheets, eight rows of five. After about one hour, I got tired so I decided to go out and start rolling. The rolling was so relaxing and fun. I finished two trays and about six cups of coffee before I was reassigned to packing the frozen rolls into aluminum trays then into the boxes. I cannot wait for the festival so I can finally eat the fruit of my labors.

Elizabeth Scozzaro— On Monday Team Intern helped at the Spanakopita Workshop all day. I did not know what was in store for us because I did not realize there was a 6,000 spanakopita requirement! I began the day being a runner for butter, spinach, and anything else the rollers needed. The rollers were the women who rolled the spinach in the phyllo dough. Eventually, the rollers got behind and I jumped in to help. It was fun to learn how to make one of my favorite foods in the world! Everybody there was kind to us and took much interest in our lives at school and at State and Federal Communications.