Mt. Pleasant Glass & Ethnic Festival to return for 1st year without founders

Since the beginning of the Mt. Pleasant Glass & Ethnic Festival 36 years ago, Sharon Kruse has been operating a food booth at the event with her family.

Selling french fries, chicken tenders, funnel cakes, lemonade and snow cones, Kruse of Mt. Pleasant said she received a plaque denoting her booth — Kruse’s Plain and Fancy — as one of the first ones to participate in the festival.

“We do the best we can,” Kruse said. “We don’t just serve anything.”

She explained her family strives to make food people will like, and, over the years, she’s seen repeat customers.

“You can’t be here from the beginning and not serve decent food,” Kruse said.

Kruse said she makes her funnel cake mix from scratch, and the idea for the booth’s pumpkin funnel cake came from Jeff Landy, the late Mt. Pleasant borough manager, who co-founded the festival with Jerry Lucia, the late longtime Mt. Pleasant mayor and fire chief.

Landy died in May after complications related to a liver transplant, and Lucia died in December 2021. This year will mark the first Mt. Pleasant Glass & Ethnic Festival without both founders.

Kruse said she and her family always were friendly with the pair, and they were “really nice guys.”

She said she hopes they “laid a good foundation” so the popular festival can continue to thrive. There are many loyal vendors who have attended for many years, she said.

“We want to maintain it in their honor, if nothing else,” Kruse said.

This year’s festival will take place Friday through Sunday, with opening at 11 a.m. daily — rain or shine. There will be more than 100 ethnic food, craft, sales and exhibit booths, as well as an area featuring glass torch and cutting demonstrations.

On Saturday morning, there will be festival pageant, and the parade will be at 2 p.m. Saturday on Main Street. Sunday night fireworks will bring the festival to a close, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The weekend will include various performances from bands and individuals, as well. A full schedule can be found online.

Marie Albertini-Dawson, secretary of the festival, has been a part of the event celebrating the town’s glassmaking heritage for 35 years. She was there when it started as nationality days.

Albertini-Dawson of Mt. Pleasant said everyone is working together as a team and doing their jobs.

“Jeff (Landy) had told us before he passed to make sure we make him proud,” Albertini-Dawson said. “We know he’s looking down saying, ‘OK, you’re doing it so far.’”

New attractions at the festival will be a Brazilian food stand and another serving exotic meats — including alligator burgers.

Albertini-Dawson said Landy and Lucia made it their mission to make the community happy, trying to bring in more people to the town and show them “how good Mt. Pleasant really is.”

“I love Mt. Pleasant, and I will never leave it,” she said.

Barbara Golobish and Ken Kowash are two of the people involved in running the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish’s booth at the festival, which has been serving food for more than 20 years.

Everything at their stand is homemade, including the cabbage rolls, cavatelli, sauce, meatballs, filled donuts — raspberry, apricot or prune — halupki and pizza. For the first time, they will sell meatball sliders this year.

“Women in the kitchen deserve the credit,” said Golobish, 77, of Mt. Pleasant. “It takes many hours to prep for this.”

She said preparation began in June, freezing the food in batches prior to the festival. They’ve made 443 cavatelli, over 762 meatballs and 804 halupki, according to Golobish.

“It’s a wonderful time to share with the community and with our fellow church members,” she said.

Golobish said it’s sad Landy and Lucia aren’t here for this year’s festival.

“They’re both thoroughly going to be missed this year.”