As the calendar changes to June, the St. Mary Parish Festival is to open with attractions and activities for people of all ages.
Ruth Ludwig, Dana Scherger and Tiffany Fry head the festival committee, with Ed and Linda Kimmet as bingo chairpersons. Kim Zahner is new to the festival committee. The booth chairmen have been recruiting volunteers to fill the shifts.
Ludwig said the festival has attracted many new volunteers.
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PHOTO BY MARYANN KROMER
Wanda Mills, chairman of the boutique booth, checks out some of the afghans
donated for raffle prizes at St. Mary Parish Festival.
"And of course, the usual old ones who work every year and put their hearts and souls into it," she said.
Friday night features bingo 6:30-10:30 p.m. in the basement recreation room at St. Mary School. Expando Band is to provide music in the beer tent 8-11 p.m. Other booths that will be open include Big 6, Boutique Booth (in the school gym), Golden Nugget, Pizza Booth and Ring Toss.
"They always sold tips in the bingo room, but this year, it's going to be instant bingos," Ludwig said.
Saturday, the grounds are to be open 2-11 p.m. with carnival rides, drawings, games and bingo 5-10 p.m. Food options on the grounds include ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn, funnel cakes, slushes and bratwurst. More substantial choices are to be available at the lunch stand with sandwiches, fries and homemade desserts.
At 5:30 p.m., spaghetti dinners are to be served in the school cafeteria. Ludwig said this is the last year the Longo family plans to prepare the spaghetti.
"The same people won't be doing it. We'll probably pick up with something different next year," Ludwig said.
Card players can enter the Texas Hold 'em tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday with a $35 buy-in. Rusty Vinyl takes to the stage in the beer tent. A cake auction is set for about 7:30 p.m. The Revs. Gary Walters and Michael Roemmele have agreed to bake specialty cakes for the auction.
"Father Michael also is doing a church booth. He's going to have different St. Mary's memorabilia for sale and some giveaway items. He's going to have his own booth," Ludwig said.
The general raffle booth is to have tickets available at $1 each for an array of prizes. They include an iPad III; Kindle Fire; a 30-minute plane ride; Vera Bradley luggage and purses; fishing trip; Calvert Catholic Schools tuition credit; golf packages from Mohawk and Clinton Heights; Ohio State toy box; two sets of tickets to "Messiah on the Frigidaire" at The Ritz Theatre; an outdoor grill; a pair of Indians tickets; a one-night stay at Hampton Inn; a family season pass to Field of Dreams Drive-In; three gift baskets; and three gift certificates. The grand prize is $10,000 cash.
Gifts Galore, Zodiac, Lucky Chance, Gold Nugget and the Mystery Booth offer smaller prizes. The Kiddy Korner has activities for children. The game booths include Ball and Barrell, Bouncing Ball, Dime Toss, Ring Toss and Tic Tac Toe. The Boutique Booth is stocked with garage-sale merchandise, books, plants and crafts. The afghan raffle prizes also can be seen in the Boutique Booth.
"We just have lots of good donations from the public - lots of nice things," Ludwig said.
A 5K run gets under way at 9 a.m. Sunday. Entry forms are available at the church exits or by calling (419) 447-1129. The main festival gets going at 11 a.m. with the opening of the booths and the serving of chicken dinners in the cafeteria.
"The chicken dinners are going to be (available at a) drive-through from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. It's going to be on Miami Street, where the buses parked," Fry said.
After several years without it, the craft show is set to run 11 a.m.-6 p.m. One of the vendors is a 9-year-old from the Lima area who makes bows out of duct tape. Noon is the deadline for submitting entries in the pie baking contest with judging at 3 p.m.
"We'd like to get as many pies as possible. Last year, I think we had 20-some," Fry said.
After the judging, the contest pies are to be auctioned to the highest bidders. Sunday bingo is to run 2-7 p.m. Southern Express is to play in the beer garden, and prize drawings begin at 9 p.m.
