BUTTE — Hey Butte, are you hungry? Well, volunteers are making about 600 pasties a day for the rest of this week in order to raise money for the maintenance of the Our Lady of the Rockies statue that overlooks Butte. This fundraiser is certainly a labor of love.
“Oh, I love our volunteers. They’re great and they all are just so kind and nice,” said long-time volunteer Sara Sparks.
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For more than 30 years, the group has been hosting this event in which they make from scratch more than 3,000 pasties throughout the week. This year, they have new convection ovens that were donated in honor of the late Fran O’Ferrell, Jack Walsh and Genevieve Schwend.
“Yeah, she would like this … sorry. Because we can get done so much faster, instead of being here until 6 o’clock we can be done by 2,” said Genevieve’s daughter Sherry Schwend.
The volunteers gave me a lesson in how to roll a pasty.
Oh, I know what this is: This is a spatula. Oh, this is going to be a fine pizza. How about that!
“It’s fun to do and the cause is a wonderful cause,” said Cheryl Beatty of Anaconda.
One major project of the cause is to help raise the $55 million to build a tram to the statue.
“First of all, it would be much easier to get up the mountain to see the Lady, and I also think it would be a tourist boom for Butte and the surrounding area,” said Sparks.
People can purchase these pasties for just $7 each—cash or check only—by dropping in at the old St. Mary’s Catholic Church across from the Original Mine Yard on North Main Street.
