The next event being planned by Love Mom XOXO will again honor the memory of the woman in whose memory the nonprofit organization was founded.

All are invited to a Pierogi Making Fundraiser scheduled for Sunday, March 26. It will run from 2 to 4:30 pm at C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street.

Guests will learn how to make traditional Polish pierogies. An instructor will lead the group, step by step, as attendees create their own masterpieces.

The finished pierogies will be boiled during the event, to be taken home for dinner or frozen for future enjoyment. Each student will also receive a copy of the recipe.

Cost is $40 for adults, who will make approximately one dozen pierogies, and $10 for children, who will make three to five of the filled dumplings.

Registration is required, and available through lovemomxoxo.org/events.

Love Mom XOXO was founded in May 2022 to honor the memory of Lynn (Nespoli) Lewis, who died suddenly in December 2020. The 48-year-old Newtown resident was a daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend.

The brain aneurysm that took her life left her husband Al of 24 years suddenly on his own. It also left the couple’s children — three young adults — without their mother. Al was thrust into the unenviable role of being both parents at the same time he became a widower.

Lynn’s older sister Lori Nespoli watched her brother-in-law and his children struggle through those days.

Nespoli knows she and her family are not alone mourning a loved one like Lynn Lewis. So she set about establishing and launching a nonprofit foundation she hopes will help other spouses and families who find themselves in situations similar to theirs.

Love Mom XOXO is a 501(c)(3) Nespoli describes as a family bereavement organization focusing on surviving parents and their children. The organization took its name and logo from the signature Lynn Lewis put into countless notes and cards to her children.

Fundraising efforts have been done to increase the organization’s offerings, with many special events focused around things Lynn Lewis enjoyed doing. There has been a motorcycle ride, a family-friendly afternoon of board and lawn games at a local vineyard, and caroling at one of Newtown’s nursing homes.

The pierogi event, Nespoli told The Newtown Bee, is being planned because that food item was a staple for the Nespoli family.

“They were always a tradition at our Christmas Eve celebrations, which has been passed down for generations on my mom’s side,” she said March 4. “We don’t normally make them ourselves, so I thought it would be a great event and opportunity to learn something new.”’

Lynn Lewis loved cooking and baking, “and was always trying new recipes,” Nespoli said. “She never tried her hand at making homemade pierogies but I know if she were still here she 100 percent would have loved this event and would have jumped right in to learn.”

Growing up, Nespoli said, her sister was very close to their maternal grandmother.

“She was glued to her hip growing up,” Nespoli said. “I have no doubt she was my sister’s inspiration in developing her love for cooking and baking.”

Organizers of the pierogi event — fellow family members and close friends — wanted to honor Lynn and the Nespoli girls’ grandmother “by tackling make-our-own pierogies after all these years,” said Nespoli. “We want to give them something to be proud of us for, and give them something to smile about as we know they will be watching and cheering us on.”

A popular food for many families at Easter, Nespoli said the approaching holiday played into the timing of the new event. The instructor has 25 years of experience making pierogies, she added.

=====

Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.