By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
Some proceeds to this year’s Lewiston-Auburn Greek Festival will aid people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

LEWISTON – Enjoy the music and dance. Savor the shish kebab. And give a little, too.

That’s the plan this Friday and Saturday as Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church holds its third annual Lewiston-Auburn Greek Festival.

Leaders behind the two-day event hope to draw 2,000 or more people to the Hogan Road church yard for the celebration of Greek culture, which also will have a bazaar, games and a taverna.

As the festival’s slogan goes: “Once a year, everybody is Greek.” This year, that includes people hurt or displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

A portion of the festival’s proceeds will go to help people in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, the Rev. Ted Toppses said.

“When this happened last week, it was like, How could we not help?'” Toppses said. “We are all part of the same family.”

The festival planning began long before the storm, though.

Only a week or two after last year’s festival ended – drawing at least 1,700 people – organizers at the church began planning this year’s event.

They decided to standardize their fare, holding an in-house contest to find the best recipes for everything from spanakopita, a spinach pie baked with feta cheese in layers of phyllo dough, to the karidopita, a walnut cake flavored with syrup.

Preparation began about two months ago when the lamb was purchased, marinated and frozen. In the weeks since, doughs and other foods were also frozen, filling four freezers. By Friday morning, it will all be defrosted and ready to cook, grill or bake.

The food is the centerpiece of the festival, with authentic Greek dinners all priced under $10. For folks with less adventurous palates, Simones’ Hot Dogs also plans to be there.

“This year, we’re trying harder to reach out to kids,” Toppses said. Like past festivals, this one will have an inflated bouncing room for kids. New games include the creation of a child’s passport to Greece.

For adults, the Kutsas Taslis Band from Boston plans to perform live on Saturday night.

The festival even hopes to deliver a bit of its cuisine. For orders of 10 or more meals, people may contact the church and the food will be delivered, as long as it’s in Lewiston and Auburn.

The whole point of the festival is to share the church and the Greek culture with the community, Toppses said.

So far, it’s working.

If the church hits its goal of serving 2,000 meals, it will easily surpass last year’s numbers. Other events, such as a November pastry sale, are also seeing increases in demand.

Meanwhile, the numbers who worship are also rising. Currently, about 135 families belong to the church.

In the past four years, the membership has risen by 30 percent, Toppses said.