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St. Joseph’s Church Fish Fry a Mainstay

By David Meyer

03/27/2012

Volunteers from Saint Joseph’s Church in Nortonville put up chairs following another successful Friday Lenten fish fry at their adjacent school.

It was considered successful because the community of 637 people served over 650 people that night, which is actually somewhat of an average number for them in recent years.

(Play Audio) RT: :15

That’s Richard Bertles.

He’s one of the many people that help organize the weekly operations.

They have come a long way since that first fish fry 18 years ago.

They have fed as much as 947 people in one night in 2007, and average nearly four thousand meals served over the six week period.

Bertles says people come from far and wide for the event, largely spread through word of mouth.

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One of the more interesting sights at Saint Joseph’s Church and School is a school bus.

You are probably asking what is so interesting about a school bus being at a school.

Well, this isn’t an ordinary school bus; it’s used to as the kitchen to fry all the fish for the event.

Bertles explains why they use the bus as the kitchen.

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Those fryers get put to heavy use over the course of the night.

Bertles says the amount of food varies week to week.

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Volunteerism helps make the fish fry flow.

Clean-up is fast as assembly lines are formed in the kitchen to wash and dry silverware and to dump leftovers.

Bertles says the church unites together to serve the public.

(Audio Continues) RT: :27

The church will be hosting its last fish fry of the season Friday evening from five until seven.