Paczki Paradise

Sun City resident Kathy Boyce never imagined her once small celebration of a common Polish tradition would grow into a much larger and highly anticipated annual event.

Kathy Boyce’s simple tradition of celebrating Paczki Day with a few friends and family has grown into large celebration over the years, where she hosts as many as fifty people in her home. (Photos provided)

For those unfamiliar, paczki are a must-have decadent treat commonly eaten on Fat Tuesday in America, the day before Lent begins. This Polish tradition of indulging in these round, sugar-filled pastries, has been around since the Middle Ages and has only continued to grow in popularity as more and more people get hooked on these delicious fried dough desserts.

Being of Polish decent herself, Boyce simply wanted to share in the beloved custom of Paczki Day with some of her neighbors.

“I think after the first year of just the neighbors around, people said, ‘oh, we don’t know where to get good paczki,’ and I said I got a place and it grew from there,” Boyce said. “I had about 50 people this year and it has grown from being just 10. This is my seventh year doing it. I just enjoy seeing everybody so happy, so I just like to share it with everybody and I just do this because I want to.”

Attendees of this February 25 celebration, were not left disappointed as Boyce ensured to feature everything from traditional flavors like custard and strawberry, to more modern and trendier takes on paczki including key lime and lemon meringue flavors to name a few. Don’t expect to see Boyce buying paczki from any regular super market either. With the help of her friends, Maxine Farbisz and Carol Bonafede, Boyce goes all out each year and endures long lines at her bakery of choice.

“A real paczki is only for a certain time. We go to Central Continental Bakery, they’re in Mt. Prospect and that’s where we go and get them. This year, I ordered five dozen but we split them in quarters so that we had 240 pieces so that people could taste the different [flavors] and so we had quite an assortment,” Boyce explained.

Long-time attendee and friend, Theresa Pawlicki, admires the positivity Boyce and her event has brought to the community, with this year’s celebration being no exception.

Boyce’s Paczki Day celebration included the traditional custard and strawberry paczkis but also featured contemporary, trendy versions like key lime.

“[Kathy] does this herself. This year was a very different year with this. You’d think as we’re getting older, we’d be slowing down or cutting down, but it’s getting busier and busier and everything even matched. The utensils, the plates, the napkins. It was all having to do with the Mardi Gras theme. Everybody got beads when they came in and it was just something. It was a very positive thing and everybody talked to everybody,” Pawlicki said. “In today’s day and age, it was a positive thing. It’s a Polish custom. I’ve celebrated it and Kathy being Polish herself has celebrated it and to see it grow to this magnitude it just brings back memories to see people happy.”

Boyce says expects nothing in return except to spread joy through the power of some good, authentic paczki.

“People have offered to help, but this is just something I want to do. So, I don’t want anything from anybody. I just want [people] to come and enjoy themselves,” she said.

In preparation for next year’s Paczki Day, Boyce only worries about making sure she has enough ordered for her growing number of guests, but jokes if the event gets any larger, she’ll have to invest in valet parking.

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