Food, music and shopping fetch thousands to festival
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 26 2009 04:38 AM
By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily HeraldMidway through St. Joseph Catholic Church's annual Fest-of-All on Sunday, chairman Myron Ryan and other organizers estimated that 3,000 people had come through to buy things, eat and listen to music. A steady stream of people was still pouring in.
The weather cooperated. Most activities except for a rummage sale were outside, although mostly under canvas canopies, and the balmy air was punctuated by frequent breezes across the broad plain where the church is situated on Rancier Avenue on the eastern edge of Killeen.
People of all ages and cultures sauntered through displays of clothes, used books and jewelry while munching on funnel cakes, hot dogs and other carnival-style snacks.
Hundreds of chairs were arranged at tables for people to enjoy bigger meals of kolaches, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Filipino, German and other ethnic fare prepared by members of the 20 or so cultures that make up the congregation. Hamburgers and hot dogs were available as well.
A stage set up on a flatbed trailer was busy all day with Hispanic, Pacific Island and Anglo-American groups, many of them children.
The Killeen Fire Department had a ladder truck and a mobile intensive care unit on the scene to demonstrate.
There was also a Humvee that festival organizers had invited Fort Hood officials to send, with military policemen Staff Sgt. Christopher Santiago and Spc. Scott Lopez of the 1st Cavalry Division to explain its use. It was their first visit to the event.
"Children love to get in this and play," Santiago said.
Swinging the 125-pound armored door, he said the model on display was used in Bosnia and Iraq.
No one could remember how long ago the Fest-of-All started, but Carol Daude, an organizer of the rummage sale and several other activities, said, "I'm 48 and grew up in this church, and it's been going as long as I can remember, at least 35 years. I'm one of several people here whose parents were in charge of different things when we were kids, and we took over when they retired."
The rummage sale was heavy on clothes but also included a lot of household implements donated by church members and people in the community. Proceeds from everything sold at the festival help support the church and its school.
"We donate anything we don't sell at the rummage sale to charities in town who can turn around and give the items to their clients," Daude said.
"This year it goes to Victory Chapel downtown. We try to make sure anything we have is put to good use for people who need help – to pay it forward, so to speak."
Contact Don Bolding at
dbolding@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7557.