BOARDMAN — Arlene Denney will tell you that to be part of the “happy bakers” club, it’s vital to have a love of baking mixed with, well, happiness doing it.

“You know what? This is a joy, and it brings joy to people too. That way, you’re baking from your heart,” Denney, of Youngstown, said Friday.

The entire package of ingredients contains the love of baking and the tangible results that rise from it, such as sokolatopita (Greek chocolate cake), portokalopita (Greek orange cake) and a host of other homemade pastries and desserts.

All of them and more are available, courtesy of the three-day annual Glendi St. John’s Summer Greek Festival, which began Friday at St. John the Forerunner Greek Orthodox Church, 4955 Glenwood Ave. The festivities continue noon to 9 p.m. today and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Also part of the “happy bakers” team is Eugenia Pontikos of Canfield, who assisted Denney with preparing the treats at their homes and at the church.

Denney, a 52-year church member, added that part of the allure of her role in creating the treats is being able to keep alive certain customs from the Old Country.

A sample of additional pastries, cakes, cookies and bread they and others made include amygdalota (a gluten-free almond cookie), tsoureki (sweet bread), kataifi (shredded phyllo with walnuts and honey that resembles Shredded Wheat cereal), galaktoboureko (a custard-filled phyllo) and peanut butter cups.

In addition to celebrating and bringing to the community Greek customs, traditions and culture, the family-friendly gathering is a fundraiser to go toward various church repairs as well as its maintenance and operations, Anthony Orologas, event co-chairman said. A goal is to bring in at least $30,000, he added.

At least 53 meals and treats are a key component of the fest, Orologas continued.

Of course, no such festival would be complete without the main entrees of Greek-baked chicken dinners and slow-roasted lamb dinners, or the slew of other menu items such as calamari, lamb pitas, smelts, hot dogs and french fries, dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves), rizogalo (rice pudding) and gyros.

Handling the first step toward making sure plenty of gyros were available was Dean Paidas, a longtime parishioner who spent part of Friday cutting with precision beef and lamb meat.

“You heat the oil, dip the cheese in water, dust with flour, brown and set on fire,” Chryse Ellinos of Boardman said in describing a process she carefully performed that’s loosely known as “cheese on fire.”

Ellinos, a lifetime St. John the Forerunner Church member, was busy executing those steps on large slices of kefalograviera cheese, which also included topping it with lemon and adding a squirt of brandy that causes a chemical reaction leading to the fire, she explained.

Kefalograviera is a popular hard and pale yellow Greek cheese with a salty, nutty and piquant flavor and firm texture made from goat’s and sheep’s milk.

The fest also includes a bookstore in which a wide array of religious books, icons, pamphlets, car stickers and satchels are available.

Eleni Kassimas, a church member, explained the main concept of a book titled “A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain: Discussion with a Hermit on the Jesus Prayer.” The author is a bishop in the Orthodox Church of Greece who’s also a highly regarded ascetical theologian in the church.

The setting is the Holy Mountain of Mount Athos, a 40-mile peninsula in northern Greece where several thousand Orthodox monks live and rely heavily on the Jesus Prayer, handed down from the early Church.

Pamela Limbert, a fellow St. John member and retired Boardman High School teacher, said the festival’s deeper layers extend beyond the food and desserts.

“The Greek church is not just Greek cooking,” she added. “Greek cooking is good. It’s really about reading about these saints (including those in the book) and their influences in our lives, and hopefully we have a better world.”

If you go …

WHAT: The annual Glendi St. John’s Summer Greek Festival

WHEN: noon to 9 p.m. today and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: St. John the Forerunner Greek Orthodox Church, 4955 Glenwood Ave., Boardman

ADMISSION: Free