[dropcaps] A [/dropcaps] s the Fall Festival for Holy Spirit Catholic Church kicked off again this past September 23-24th, early on Saturday morning Rod Kinard and Jorge Barragan could finally breathe a huge sigh of relief. Their largely behind-the-scenes efforts serving as Operations Committee Co‐Chairs began early in June but now they could finally sit back and for a few moments at least, reap the rewards of watching the cars fill up the parking lots and the Midway become crowded with children playing games and adults enjoying the outdoor festivities.
Preparing, organizing and planning seems to come easily to a festival veteran like Rod Kinard who has chaired and co-chaired this committee for the past few years, serving 2 years as Chair and 2 years as co-chair. For Jorge Barragan serving as co-chair this year under a pro like Rod has been a rewarding apprenticeship and he looks forward to taking the reins as chair next year. But ask either of them if you could ever have enough help to do the actual heavy lifting and set up during the days leading up to the event and I think we all know what the answer would be. And although this year it seemed that help was a bit sparse, one way or another “the Knights in charge” managed to pull it off and have it all done by the time festival goers arrived. This year marks Rod’s last year co-chairing Festival Operations and like the men who preceded him in this role he looks forward to attending next year’s festival in more of a “civilian” role.
We are grateful to Rod for his leadership and his many years of service in operations and to Jorge as well and for taking on the challenge to chair the committee next year. Gentlemen we thank you for your time and energy and everything else that you did in order to pull off this herculean effort once again.
There are always Knights from our council leading the way in key roles that help make the festival happen. Another festival cornerstone is Chris Kubin who served as Festival Chair this year as well as Food Chair, a role he has served in for several years. In a last minute move Chris saved the day (and the festival) by quickly reacting to a new food and fire marshall requirement that changed the way we have cooked with propane gas and grills in the past. Apparently the new regulation required longer hoses than we own and a separate cooking area from the serving areas, so quick thinking Chris Kubin ordered a new cooking station built out of 2×4’s and corrugated steel roofing. Apparently this was enough to satisfy the new requirement so the show could go on.
The Knights are of course, responsible for a lof of the cooking during the festival as well. Under the direction of Church Activities Director Jim Stavinoha, our festival cuisine included the fair classics: turkey legs, hamburgers, hot dogs and corny dogs. The cooking of turkey legs always brings out our past Grand Knight Chris Edwards, the unofficial keeper of our large smoker.
Knight Efrain Ochoa in charge of smoking our world class festival turkey legs.
There were literally dozens of Knights on hand to help in many areas of the festival. Our Council Activities Director and District Deputy Sir Knight Andy Goza was in charge of the Beer Garden among many other responsibilities he takes on, too numerous to mention. Sir Knight Mike Moloughney was again in charge of the Midway Games, including inflatable games and petting zoo, always one of the more popular areas of the festival.
Once again the Knights of Council 8157 took the challenge and excelled doing it, another successful fall festival has come and gone and we’re already looking forward to next year.
Council Meeting Schedule
