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VOL. 03, NO. 48
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Friday, September 11, 2015
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Fall Festival celebrates
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110 years
Triple threat Wheels and Wings: 800 cars plus bikes and planes. P12
for St. Peter's Church
Art-o-rama Franconia and everything art Sept. 12. P9
Submitted photos BY MICHELLE MIRON Editor
Motifs with modern mix Lindstrom’s Jessie DeCorsey describes her work. P12
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FOREST LAKE — It's been staged for more than 50 years by one of the town's largest churches, it raises some $75,000 annually and it regularly draws 2,000 to 3,000 people each September for a variety of fun non-denominational activities. This year the Fall Festival put on by St. Peter's Church and School reverts back to a threeday event offering carnival rides and two nightly dances, adding to more regular attractions like children's games, bingo, a wine toss, $10,000 worth of raffle prizes, a silent auction, a cake walk, fair food concessions, golf, Bunco and
cribbage tournaments and sales of everything from jewelry to DVDs to baked goods. Church Business Administrator and festival chairman Gene Schommer said the tried-and-true event — which goes on rain or shine — is the largest annual fundraiser for the congregation which these days includes about 7,000 parishioners. The school, which houses 252 students in preschool through sixth grade, also benefits. While the festival funds church missions, the church is also looking ahead to a capitol campaign it hopes will fund a $4.1 million addition to include an enlarged gathering space, two more classrooms, more
offices and a new chapel. It would like to break ground on the project, which encompasses 3,610 additional square feet, in June. Schommer said the motivation is congregation growth and a desire for more gathering space for weddings, baptisms, funerals and other family events. The church starts planning the Fall Festival each January, and must recruit some 600 volunteers to make it all happen. “Maybe 30 percent of attendees come from outside (the parish),” Schommer estimated. He pointed to another popular draw each year — the real roasted turkey, pork loin and mashed potato dinner,
this year prepared by a team headed up by school secretary Kathy Craig and her husband, Mick. Traditionally, the 30 20-pound turkeys start cooking at 3:30 a.m. the morning before they're served up Sunday. Slated as entertainment at the Saturday night dance will be Andover-based country band Gravel Roads, while Sunday afternoon will feature young polka-playing group Nathan's Old Time Band of Avon. The carnival rides, some of which are geared toward small children, will be offered in the church backyard by familyowned Cody Rides. Through
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