by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
The three-day annual St. Francis Xavier Festival, dubbed “Franny Fest,” will kick off the evening of Friday, Aug. 19, with a Teen Night featuring music and lots of fun games from 6-8:30 p.m.
The special night is open to youth of any faith in grades 6-12. There will be human foosball, Nerf Wars, a Break-a-Plate game, pizza, soda pop and other forms of refreshments.
There will be a grand-prize giveaway at the Teen Night with the top prize a $200 gift card to Scheels Hardware, plus prizes that include sweatshirts, movie tickets and many gift cards.
Children must be present to win prizes.
Saturday
Early Saturday, Aug. 20, the “Franny Flyer” races will begin.
There are two races, a 1K for children starting at 8:30 a.m. and a 5K and 10K walk/run starting at 9 a.m. for a variety of age groups selected by 10-year increments – for example 0-9, 10-19 and so forth.
The races will be timed with chip timers worn by each participant. There will be prizes for the top three female and male finishers.
There is a registration fee to enter the events.
An outdoor Mass will take place, also Saturday. After Mass, there will be games, raffle-ticket sales, a Bake-Walk game, a bike sale, an auction, food, refreshments, a sack tournament, indoor bingo, bake sales, inflatables, booths selling various used items such as CDs and tapes, and live music by Walter’s Wheelhouse.
The St. Cloud-based Walter’s Wheelhouse is a band that plays a wide variety of songs from the likes of Cheryl Crow, Santana, Train, Guns N’ Roses and the Monkees. Its lead vocalist happens to be Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall. Other members are Dan Witte on lead guitar, John Kirchner on bass, Alex Kendall on drums, Andrew Kendall on keyboards and, for some gigs, Makcario Johnson on auxiliary percussion.
Sunday
On Sunday, Aug. 21, the festival will continue with two Masses at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Each Mass will be followed by a bake sale.
A “Dads’ Waffle Breakfast” will be served starting at 8:30 a.m. until noon, at which time the raffle winners will be announced.
The cost of the breakfast is $8 for adults, $4 for children over the age of 5, and free for kids ages 5 and under. There is also a feed-the-whole-family price of $25.
All funds raised at the festival will go to help support St. Francis Xavier church and school activities.
Janelle Kendall, Stearns County attorney, is the lead singer of Walter’s Wheelhouse, which will perform at the St. Francis Xavier Festival this coming weekend.
