Borough flag raising commemorates National Pierogy Day
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Chris Dende, VP of Human Resources at Ateeco, Inc., emcees the National Pierogy Day flag raising in Shenandoah on Oct. 8, 2020.
SHENANDOAH – Once again, the National Pierogy Day soared over Shenandoah today, marking the holiday which began 12 years ago.
Officials from Ateeco, Inc., makers of Mrs. T’s Pierogies, along with members of the media, gathered at Shenandoah Borough Hall on West Washington Street this morning for the flag raising.
“This year has so much more meaning of all the other years, with everything that everyone has had to endure,” said Chris Dende, Vice President of Human Resources.
The holiday commemorates the day company founder Ted Twardzik made his first sale in 1952, to Shenandoah’s Capitol Food Store, which was then located downtown.
“It was longer than 12 years ago that we started working on the idea of trying to get a day devoted to pierogies because we thought it would be a great way to get people talking about pierogies anywhere and everywhere,” said Tom Twardzik, president of Ateeco, Inc. “It’s certainly a quirky idea and it took quite awhile of trying to get it recognized as an official day by the folks that do this stuff.”
“This year presented a challenge in that we knew we couldn’t get crowds together,” Twardzik added. “Part of the joy of being in our business is how food can bring people together, how pierogies can bring families and people together, and we can’t, so it’s very frustrating.”
Twardzik added that people can still show their love for pierogies in other ways, and added that the interest thereof brought their website down as a result of their coupon giveaway.
“We had the opportunity to get free pierogies online and apparently the crowd for it was too much and it shut down for awhile, which is kind of frustrating but, also get a little pride in that,” Twardzik said. “People are really, really interested and they’re having a good time with it.”
“Every year it seems to get a little bit bigger, and a little less quirky,” Twardzik added. “More people from all over are stepping up and showing their love. It’s cool.”
Adding to the “quirkiness” of the event this year was the presence of three “pierogy-esque” cars, brought by Tom’s brother Tim, as well as a Cadillac with a California vanity plate reading “Pierogy”, owned by Tom’s nephew Ryan.
“Tim joked and said Ryan wanted to show off his pierogy license plate on the Cadillac he got in California, because I used to have the pierogy license plate when I went to school there, so it was available and he grabbed it now that he’s living out there,” Tom Twardzik said.
The three vehicles Tim brought were a Volkswagen Beetle A5, a Citroen, and a Nissan S-Cargo right-hand drive van, imported from Japan. Each had a compact and rounded shape, vaguely resembling a pierogy.
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