Event Has St. Bernard Parish Rolling

By Dave Mock

The watchword Saturday night at North Levittown Lanes was "fun." But behind it was a purpose more important than strikes and spares.

The bowling alley rocked with the sounds of crashing pins (and classic music) as the Children's Liturgical Committee of St. Bernard's Parish held its first Moonlight Bowl. By all accounts it was a "striking," success, drawing 178 people and raising close to $4,000, according to committee coordinator John Rotondo.

The money, Rotondo said, will go for the lighting and sound for theatrical events put on by the committee, one of whose goals is to imbue young people in the parish with a sense of family values. The committee, which is 10 months old, holds productions for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Mother's, Father's and Grandparents' Days.

Saturday night's turnout was unexpected, said Rotondo. "We're only supposed to take 144, but they just kept coming," he said, taking a break from his own bowling game. "Eighty-five percent of them were parishioners."

"The people -- they're warm and caring," said Fr. Orsete Dias, who founded the committee. "They're young families who are working together to bring back their children to true Christian values. It's a grass-roots effort."

Fr. Dias added that he wasn't surprised at the turnout, saying it was indicative of the character of the parish he's served the last few months. "People are here physically to support and encourage that good things are happening" He said that the committee has many plans to get teenagers involved, focusing right now on middle-schoolers, eventually to high schoolers.

The sponsorships for the bowling event sold out in three weeks. "We went to businesses and explained to them what we were doing," said Pete Mastrocco, one of the committee members, who was bowling Saturday night with his wife Carolyn. "A lot of them came in -- 60 to 70 percent of them."

The Mastroccos have two children. "We want them to grow up with morals and values from a young age," Pete Mastrocco said. "If they grow up in the church, they will stay with it."

"It's the families with the young children who are here," Carolyn added.

Dave Parsons said that those family values are already at work in his children. "My son, 11-year-old Adam, serves as an altar server," said Parsons, who attended the event with his wife Theresa. "The Christian values are very important to me."

Parsons noted the contrast between the St. Bernard's effort and society's atmosphere during his growing-up years in the 1970s, when "we were more into rebellion."

Forty-seven merchants from the Levittown community paid $50 apiece to sponsor one of the lanes, selling out the event in three weeks. Rotondo said that the committee also received donations from parishioners. Division Avenue Delicatessen provided the pasta, sausage and peppers and other goodies for bowlers in between games.

In addition to John and Marie Rotondo, the coordinators of the Moonlight Bowl included the Mastroccos, the Parsons, Ernie and Mary Clair Meditz, John and Kate Haslbauer, and Eileen and Ritchie Avidano.