Manor Community Day revives community tradition, engages all ages

Lois Gongaware was 5 when she first began volunteering with Manor’s Labor Day carnival.

Saturday, she made the Manor Fire Department’s “famous fried dough” for Manor’s first Labor Day celebration in 21 years — and her son and grandson were there to help.

The fire department hosted the Labor Day carnival for about 80 years until it was shut down in 2002. For the past year, Mayor Ed Malinoski has worked to bring it back.

The former carnival event — which used to be three days long — included amusement park rides, foot races, boxing, live bands and a nearly two-hour long parade, according to Gongaware of Manor. One year, there was a mud wrestling competition, she added.

The firefighters’ spouses would bake items for the bake sale, and there was ice cream sold to accompany the sweets, she said.

Although the event looks different than it once did, the fried dough recipe remains the same.

“It’s a secret,” Gongaware said.

The trick, Gongaware said, is to separate the dough into fours, let it rise and pull out the edges. It’s all hand-pulled.

In between making batches of dough, Gongaware catches glimpses of the Community Day crowd.

“When I was out, (the turnout) looked pretty good,” she said. “I’m hoping if we do it again, it gets better.”

Seeing the community gather together means a lot to Gongaware’s generation, she said.

“It just brings back a lot of memories,” Gongaware said. “Those were the good days. I loved it.”

Tradition passed down

Gongaware’s grandson wasn’t the only one to experience his first Labor Day celebration.

Ava Ondayko, 9, of Manor, hosted a tent for her jewelry business — Ava’s Rainbow Bracelets. She sold bracelets, necklaces, ID badges and rings.

Ondayko first started making the rubber band bracelets when she received a kit from her grandmother for her sixth birthday.

“(Community Day) was coming up. I wondered ‘Why not?’ So we did this, and it’s really fun,” Ondayko said.

Ondayko is pleased with the number of customers and passersby she saw, but her main goal is for people to enjoy the jewelry.

“I always hope that all the customers who buy these love them,” she said.

True Martial Arts Studio exemplified the multi-generational aspect of the community event through their tang soo do demonstration.

The Murrysville studio is a “family” for about 100 peoples of all ages, said owner Tiffany Althof. About 20 of her students gave a performance featuring choreographed moves, sparring, and demonstration of weapons like the bowstaff.

While many of her students are children and teenagers, Althof said a few parents have gotten into the Korean martial arts form because of their children’s involvement.

“It’s fun. It’s family,” said Althof, of Herminie. “(My students) are able to just perform because they want to — they have a drive inside.”

Althof said she was excited for the studio to be invited.

“I thought it was a great day,” she said. “We know that (Manor) is a nice community, and (it was great) to be able to come out and kind of show what we got and have a lot of fun.”