Holy Family Catholic Church holds fourth annual Fall Fest

By DAVID J. HARDIN
Cove Leader-Pres

Holy Family Catholic Church celebrated the start of fall with its fourth annual Fall Fest on Saturday.
The annual event is a chance for the church to connect with the community, said Fran Ewart, co-chair for this year’s event. She and her husband, Ned, helped coordinate the efforts of many volunteers for the festival. 
“Our setup for this year’s event has changed a bit. For example, the big top tent is now located more in the middle. We have a pony ride carousel, instead of a petting zoo, and fabulous singers and dancers to look forward to,” Ned said. “We have increased the number of games and activities for the kids.” 
“We want our church to be more inclusive with greater Copperas Cove community, and we put out lots of flyers so that we can bring as much of the community to our festival as possible,” Fran added.
The event was filled once again with live entertainment under the big tent with a variety of singers and dancers such as the Poly Mic Dancers, an Andean flute player, Acmed Tuesta, a balloon clown, singer Paula Fleming, Mecatx Ballet Folklorico de Colores, and Cowboy poet Malcolm Dickinson.
Away from the big tent, kids enjoyed various activities such as the train that circled the festival grounds, face painting, space ball, pony rides, and a car smash, with each activity costing one to four tickets. For a wristband, children could participate in activities all afternoon. 
The kids had many games to choose from like pumpkin bean toss, feed the elephant, soda bottle ring toss, duck pond, tic tac toad, angry birds bowling, football toss, noodle toss, shooting gallery, feed the piggy, and pirate hook toss. 
There was also food, and lots of it. Food from around the world such as of Mexico, Chamorro cuisine, and all-American cuisine of hot dogs, hamburgers, bratwursts, and chips. Other festival food include nachos, cotton candy, snow cones and funnel cakes. Craft vendors and other groups like The Ladies Society were on hand for the celebration.
The festival also held a classic car show, bingo, a silent auction. The day culminated with drawings for the raffle for prizes, one of which a new car from one of the sponsors of the event. Auto Max in Killeen. The other prizes raffled off were a 55-inch Smart TV, a Dyson vacuum, electric smoker, Bose mini Bluetooth speaker, fire pit, $200 Giovanni’s gift card, Fit Bit Charge 2, a garden storage bench, and a $100 gift card. 
The grand prize of $30,000 toward a 2017 Ford vehicle, winner’s choice of a Ford 150 single cab, Mustang, Fusion, Escape or Edge, went to Jonathan Sonti. 
His mother, Mitos Santi, was there to accept the prize on his behalf.
“I bought tickets for the whole family, and Jonathan’s was the one that won,” said Mitos. “We had an accident with one of our vehicles recently, and so this new car will help greatly.”
The drawing closed this year’s festival and the winners did not need to be present to win. Joe Cannon and Holy Family Catholic Church priest, Father Patrick Ebner, announced the winners. 
“It was a great day, and I am really happy with the turnout,” said Ebner.
Holy Family Catholic Church members Mark and Gracie Larkin were in charge of putting together all of the kids’ games.
“The kids had a great time and all of the games were full of kids throughout the day. We were glad to help and it was a great experience,” said Mark.
The Engstrom Family recently moved here to Central Texas from Virginia.
“This is a great event,” said Harold Engstrom. “The food was great and the variety of performers were wonderful.” He was there with his wife Beverly, and their daughters McKinley, Audrey, and Victoria. 
Caleb Miles and his fiancée, Jacqueline Leblanc, were on hand for the festival. 
“I enjoyed volunteering, and loved the food, and all of the performers,” said Caleb.
Crystal Clawson and her five-year-old daughter Addison came out from Killeen after seeing a post on Facebook for the event.
“We are having a great time. Addison liked the pony ride the best,” said Crystal.
Trey Wagstaff and his wife, April, came to the Fall Fest hoping to win the car, but although they did not win, they enjoyed the food and the whole atmosphere.
Holy Family Catholic Church has already set the date for next year’s Fall Fest, Saturday, September 29, 2018.