Donna DeBartolo remembers coming to Oelwein every summer as a little girl to be with her grandparents and remember her Italian heritage. This weekend, she will be doing the exact same during the 2026 Italian Heritage Day.<\/p>\n
Saturday, Aug. 8, at Red Gate Park in Oelwein, descendants of Italians who currently or formerly resided in Oelwein and the area will meet once again as they bring back the tradition of gathering started by Dominic \u201cSquint\u201d Prillo in 1973.<\/p>\n
This year will be the 53rd annual celebration of all things Italian beginning at 11 a.m. with a bocce ball tourney.<\/p>\n
DeBartolo, a favorite of the Italian fest who concocts the most delicious cookies and treats, will be returning from Colorado with a few of her family members for this year\u2019s celebration, a celebration that has been a part of her upbringing for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents, my mother was born in Oelwein, and so it was her cousin, Squint, Dominic Prillo, who started it,\u201d she said. \u201cI have pictured from 1952 when we started going to Red Gate Park. We just called it a family gathering back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every summer brought the return to Oelwein to spend time with her grandparents in grade school. As she got older, the dishes that were a part of her upbringing were integrated into Heritage days.<\/p>\n
In 2024 and 25, the DeBartolos served the dinner after mass and provided the treats made specially by Donna for purchase at Red Gate in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been making those for the last few years and we also catered the dinner after Luigi\u2019s burnt down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody makes the Italian cookies anymore, so I did a cooking school at Sacred Heart Church one year and that helped,\u201d DeBartolo explained. \u201cWe baked bread and made the Italian cookies. We grew up with them every Sunday, you know, Italians made their spaghetti and meatballs and fried chicken and salad and Italian bread every Sunday growing up. Then they asked me to make the cookies because nobody there makes them, so I\u2019ve been doing that for a few years, maybe five or six years.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of her memorable dishes is her fish bread, often with a spicy kick to pair with the fishy sardines. Other dishes of the day served included Italian sausage sandwiches and meatball subs. DeBartolo\u2019s treats range from fried sweets to baked goods.<\/p>\n
All are available this weekend during the celebration.<\/p>\n
This Saturday, a meal will be served at 11 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Registration for the bocce ball tournament is at 10 and practice is available at 9 a.m. Teams of 2 can register for $10.<\/p>\n
Mass will be announced in time.<\/p>\n
Five council members will be involved in the day as well \u2014 Tony Cannon donning the apron to cook, Lynda Payne and Renee Cantrell for food help and Jason Gearhart and Anthony Ricchio with the bocce ball tournament.<\/p>\n
The Italian Days Committee also installed cornhole boards over the summer for free play. As long as players bring their own bags, they are free to play.<\/p>\n
Happy Italian Heritage Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donna DeBartolo remembers coming to Oelwein every summer as a little girl to be with her grandparents and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21356,25432,25431,7742,4803,7747,7741,19623,5,25430,7746,25433],"class_list":["post-38265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-bocce","tag-bread","tag-cookie","tag-cooking","tag-cuisine","tag-food-and-drink-preparation","tag-foods","tag-iowa","tag-italy","tag-oelwein","tag-western-cuisine","tag-world-cuisine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}