PREPARATION — Doug Hartlieb, left, president of the Sons of Italy, and Nico DeBlasis, a member of the organization, prepare sausage to sell at the annual Undo’s Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival, which opened Friday at Heritage Port in downtown Wheeling. Gage Vota

Members of the Sons of Italy returned to the kitchen Tuesday for the annual tradition of making their famous sausage for the Undo’s Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival.

The festival opened Friday and runs through Sunday at Heritage Port in downtown Wheeling.

Members created an assembly line to prepare the 7,000 pounds of sausage Tuesday. Sons of Italy President David Badia said the organization uses the same process every year to ensure each sandwich tastes exactly the same.

“All of us here have actually been doing this for about 35 years, and we all basically do the same thing every year, it’s organized,” Badia said.”We want our sandwiches to be consistent, and our sandwiches for the festival are all 6 inches.”

The organization created its own secret recipe for the sausage years ago, but Badia downplayed the secrecy. Obviously, he said, the organization doesn’t want everyone to copy the recipe, but it’s also a secret because nobody really asks him for it.

“The recipe is really not that different. There might be a few ingredients in there, but mostly I’m going to say our sandwiches are good because we use the freshest meat and our recipe is consistent,” Badia said. “I mean, we’ve been doing this for so long, we don’t waver from the ingredients. It’s all down to a science, and I think that’s what makes the sandwiches really good, obviously because we just about sell out every year.”

The sandwiches sell for $8 each or $30 for four and can be ordered either plain or with peppers. When all is said and done, the members will have made 7,200 sandwiches to sell at the festival.

Badia said selling the sandwiches at the festival is crucial to the organization’s ability to survive.

The Sons of Italy is a volunteer organization, and everyone involved in the preparation for the festival is volunteering their time to provide the organization with the help that it needs.

“The Italian festival is one of our biggest money makers,” Badia said. “We count on that. We do make a lot of money, we’re a private lodge here. Our money is all from the extracurricular activities that we do, but the festival is our biggest. We need the success of that to carry us through the year.”

The Sons of Italy has been selling its sausage sandwiches since the very first Italian festival in 1983, and Badia said the group has no plans to stop anytime soon.

Special events at the festival include a veterans ceremony at 11 a.m. on Saturday, honoring all veterans in the Ohio Valley. At the conclusion of the ceremony there will be a hospitality tent with a light lunch and time for camaraderie.

On Sunday, a Catholic Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. with Bishop Mark Edward Brennan of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, preceded by the rosary at 9:40 a.m. Following the Mass and beginning at 11 a.m. and lasting until it is sold out, a traditional spaghetti and meatball Sunday dinner will be available for purchase at the Little Italy food tent.

Other events for Sunday include gnocchi-making and limoncello-making demonstrations.

Beer, wine and the famous wine slushies will be available.

The children’s area is back with inflatables, games and fun for the kids.

Festival times are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The mission of the festival is to provide scholarships to local area students and to continue and share the Italian culture.

This year, $18,000 in scholarships were provided to local students. Recipients were two students from each of the six counties represented by the festival board: Jefferson and Belmont counties in Ohio, and Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio counties in West Virginia.

Saturday entertainment includes, on the main stage, 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., U.S. Kids; 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Spinning Jenny; and 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., the McCartney Project (a Paul McCartney/Wings/Beatles tribute.) On the Little Italy stage are noon to 1 p.m., Le Sorelle DiBacco; 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. and 4:45-5:45 p.m., Mickey Dee (accordionist); and 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Turn It Out Dancers.

Sunday’s entertainment on the Little Italy stage includes noon to 1:15 p.m., Brasset Hounds; 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., Folkloric Dance Ensemble; 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Faire May; and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., Shawn McClurg (a Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra tribute.)