Back in the early 1950s, Mater Christi Church in North Riverside, a mission Church of St. Mary’s in Riverside, formed a men’s group called the Holy Name Society. The plan was to bring together men of the parish to promote friendship and support Mater Christi Church through faith. Among those chosen to serve as officers was someone active in the groups’ formation named Joseph Kosey Sr. In the club’s second year, he served as president.
Over the years the Holy Name has remained active and has welcomed generations of parishioners’ families. For example, the late George Zdarsky attended meetings with his sons, George and Michael, along with son-in-law, Al Meyer. They are still attending meetings and keeping the family and church tradition going.
The Holy Name has monthly meetings, many times with a guest speaker and a Mass to bring the members together. A popular event is the Smoker — not that many are smoking these days, thank goodness. I’m not quite sure what goes on, but there is Harrington’s corned beef to eat and beer to wash it down. They also have a golf outing. Then there is the big event: the annual Turkey Shoot.
There’s no actual shooting, just raffles. In past years, the event was held in Menarik Hall in the basement of the school where booths displayed food items you could win. They also had pull tabs and split-the-pot drawings for cash prizes. You could work up an appetite doing that much raffling, so you could also take a break and have something to eat from the kitchen.
Due to that darn virus last year and this year, the Holy Name came up with Plan B — a Turkey Shoot Basket Raffle. The 35 baskets will be filled with turkey, canned ham, bread, pie, houska, pannetone, salami, prasky. kolacky and assorted groceries. Each basket will contain all the items.
They will be raffled off and there will be a split-the-pot raffle. Tickets are $5 with two free entries for every $20 purchase. The Turkey Shoot will be livestreamed online at materchristichurch.com on Sunday, Nov. 14 at 3 p.m. Questions? Call Stephen Pisczor at 708-602-1927.
With the combining of Mater Christi Church, St. Hugh and Mater Christi into a new parish, the event should be better than ever.
