33% off Scratch Remover

Oakmont church team preps for huge fl...

10.08.09

On a new sunny afternoon, the Parish Life and Upbringing Center at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Oakmont was abuzz with women working.

Within, Jeannie Sweeney Ambrose was applying scratch remover to a large maple chest from the 1950s. Nearby, Natalie Cichoski, possessor of Ages Ago Antiques in Verona, was eyeing a of the same sort of jewelry to gauge its worth.

Outside on the sod, Dorothy Pronio was washing the leaves of a faux Ficus tree until they shined, as Elaine Grabowski stood -away scrubbing a trio of children's car seats. "At our flea sell, we wash, repair and restore every item before it's put on vending," Grabowski explained, without pausing in her work.

Grabowski, 68, of Oakmont is the coordinator of St. Irenaeus' spreading flea market, whose wares soon will fill the seven rooms of the memoirs and education center. Festival co-chair Ruth Lewandowski suggested naming it "Flea Merchandise of the Seven Wonders," referring not only to the number of steal-stuffed rooms, but to the wondrous number of dollars raised -- more than $10,000 last year.