Bulletin Column: Fall Festival Not Just Fun and Games!

Howdy Friends! As most of you know, our parish-wide Fall Festival volunteer push began last weekend. It takes nearly 1,000 volunteers, each working two or more hours on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, to make the festival a success—and by Monday morning, we were a third of the way there. Hopefully we are much closer to being fully staffed as you read this column, but if you haven’t volunteered for a shift already, please do so today!

It’s not just about getting together to enjoy a chicken dinner and a beer with your fellow parishioners and seeing who wins the $10,000 grand prize in our annual raffle. The Fall Festival is our parish “super bowl.” For more than 100 years, it was the biggest social event in town, and this year’s festival promises to be better than ever, with Midwest country duo Hitchville performing Saturday night, new indoor and outdoor spaces for events and activities, new food options, sacred art church tours, and more!

Our goal is to attract the entire community to celebrate with us and see what makes our parish such a special place to live and worship. But to do this, we need your help:

• First, pray for the festival—for enough volunteers, great weather, and a tremendous turnout on Saturday and Sunday, September 9-10.
• Second, invite your family and friends. The more people we welcome to the festival, the better!
• Finally (and most importantly) volunteer. You can find online signups by clicking the Fall Festival button (“Get the Latest”) on the parish homepage, stmcatholicchurch.org, then clicking Volunteer.

Volunteer opportunities are organized into four areas: Food & Beverage, Games & Activities, Auction & Retail, and Site & Logistics. We are looking for everyone to take a shift of their choice on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Most shifts will be two hours long. We are not using parishioner groups to assign households to specific jobs or areas, so sign up for whatever shift and area work best for you!

We are planning a final in-person signup drive again next weekend, September 2-3, but it would be great to give our steering committee the weekend off. Let’s fill all the slots this week, and I look forward to seeing everyone at the Fall Festival on September 9-10. God bless you!