Holy Spirit Festival 2021
Hamburgers, hot dogs, turkey legs, egg rolls, pulled pork sandwiches, tamales, fajita tacos, gorditas, funnel cakes, paletas, mariachis, and even the Bishop of Dallas, all contributed to making this one day festival a success. Yes, Father Eugene prayed hard for a great turnout and good weather and thankfully the good Lord gave us both.
Despite the later start than in previous years, the festival committee planning for this one day festival went into high gear just a few weeks before the event. There were a couple of other events prior to the festival which consumed a lot of volunteer resources, namely the sanctuary floor remodeling project, and the rededication mass just one week before the festival. The festival committee did a great job putting together an event that had all the ingredients to make it feel like a day at the Fair. They even brought in the Mariachi Los Reyes de Dallas to perform as the main act, and the Grupo Guadalupano of Holy Spirit volunteered to prepare delicious fajita tacos to go with the entertainment.
There were a couple of great donations worthy of mention this year. Our brother Knights Gilbert Zuñiga Sr and Gilbert Jr. of GilbertZ Trucking, donated at least 15 pallets full of Frito Lay products packed as sampler bags in a variety of flavors. We donated one pallet to Holy Spirit and have since donated all but one to several organizations. To add to their generosity, the Zuñigas also loaned us their 26 foot bobtail truck with built-in lift gate for use with table and chair rentals. Having the lift gate certainly helped take a load off our backs. An amazing contribution by these two worthy Knights. We are very grateful.
As we have done in previous years the Knights took charge of the preparations for the festival, including setting up the stage, all the tents and games, cooking stations and the large blue coolers for drink stations. And of course we also purchased all the food for the day. This year we put a greater emphasis on recruitment of new members and set up a booth in the dining room under the projector and screen. While inspirational KofC videos were playing in the background, our Membership Director Jim Kowalski and the rest of the membership team were busy recruiting new candidates.
After spending part of Thursday setting up the stage, all day Friday setting up the Midway the Knights spent all day Saturday grilling burgers, hot dogs, turkey legs, and some sausages and ribs samplers. The Knights came back on Sunday to take it all down and store it away again until next year. Great job brothers!