St. John's Fall Festival draws satisfying crowd

The St. John’s Lutheran Church’s Fall Festival took place on Saturday, Oct. 25 over the lunch hour. There were numerous different items being sold or given away, and a full house in the basement, with volunteers just about everywhere. More than 125 guests came through the lunch line, adding to the success of the event. 

 

One of the first sights visitors saw as they entered the event was Ann Ruedy, a member of the St. John’s Quilter’s club, with quilts available for sale. “We’re just 25 gals making quilts, we also donate them to the Pine Ridge South Dakota Indian Reservation, Lutheran World Relief, Santa Anonymous, the Linus Project and the Bethlehem Inn. We gave a hundred quilts to all of them; we also give to any area hospitals when they are in need.” Kim Groskreutz, another quilter, was asked how long it takes to put a quilt together, she replied, “Some of the quilts with a simple pattern can take as long as two and half hours, the more complicated the quilt, the longer it takes to sew. We all get together every Monday so we can sew. We learn so much each time we do.”

 

Quilts were only one type of item for sale on Saturday. There was also both a used puzzle table sale and a book giveaway table. There were assorted home grown pumpkins for a last minute Halloween decoration. There were homemade handbags and purses, and handsewn washcloths, used lamps, and assorted coffees and teas. The bake sale offered bags of kettle corn, cherry crunch pie, raspberry donuts, pumpkin bread, granola mix, monster and chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins, homemade syrups, salsa’s, blackberry jam and jellies, spiked peach bars, homemade salted nut rolls and zucchini bread. Also for sale was a giant bucket of mini candy bars.

 

Amy LeCocq donated her entire collection of collector plates and dinnerware, some of them were signed. Bev Elliot was selling them and said, “Some of these plates have been signed by the designer, this is a really special collection and we’re grateful her family donated this.”

 

In the basement of the church was a flurry of activity, not just the hungry lunch goers who were coming and going, but many blue-shirted volunteers were busy jetting back and forth from the kitchen, busing empty dishes and bringing back fresh ones. LuAnne Huber was there, she helped to identify all the ladies in the photo that was taken and added, “We have 30 volunteers helping with lunch today, we had over 60 people come through the line before noon, and there are more on the way. On the menu were sloppy joes and vegetable beef soup, with options for dine in and take out. There were also pickles and crackers. For dessert, Nancy Graumann said, “We have 14 separate pies that were donated for today.” She took time and said, “Blueberry, apple, pecan, orange flan, chocolate cream, cherry, pumpkin, boysenberry, toffee, lemon custard, strawberry rhubarb, coconut cream and French silk.”