A harvest celebration to remember

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By Taylor Wren

As everyone knows, things have been hard over the last couple of years. Nothing has come easy and most haven’t felt festive at all. This year’s Harvest Festival has managed to bring people from all over our community together and bring uplifting feelings of peace.

Last year’s festival had to be held quite differently in comparison to previous years. Instead of the normal, it was a drive-thru where they served out of the gymnasium. While it was still a successful festival, this year’s was able to bring in so many new faces.

“It’s a community event and there was a significant amount of the community that attended,” Laef Lorton, committee head, said. “Not only were there families from Saint Francis/Holy Ghost there were also quite a few families outside of the parish that were there and it was really wonderful.”

There were a few things that weren’t out this year to give more space between activities due to COVID still being an active concern in the world. With that being said, there was still enough for all the kids to have a wonderful time. We can’t forget to mention the Bingo tent that was always full of people of various age groups and the large number of raffle tickets sold.

“It was great, we really had a great turnout. It may have been one the best turnouts we have had,” Lorton said. “We couldn’t have done it without all of our volunteers, so a big thanks to our teachers, staff, students and corporate sponsors. Also, a huge thank you to our committee who has put in a lot of work.”

Everywhere you looked you found smiles, laughter and really great food. People enjoyed their day listening to the music while sitting at the perfectly placed tables in the shade, making memories with the smell of funnel cakes in the breeze, sipping lemonade-shake ups and having lunch/dinner with each other.

“I’d like to thank our vendors: Hanson Packing, Steckel Produce, Sinclairs and Brockmans,” Lorton said while expressing how proud he is of this year’s festival. “We also had 10 corporate tent sponsors who contributed over $1,000 or more to the festival.”

Those corporate tent sponsors whom Lorton and the committee would like to thank are JP Burns Excavating, Imo’s Pizza, Whitworth Horn and Goetten Insurance, American Water, Robert Sanders Waste, Grafton Oyster Bar, Preferred Title and Escrow Inc, Jerseyville Banking Center, Loellke Plumbing Inc and Wittman & Lorton Law Office. They were also thankful for the help from Rusty and Kelly Wittman and Sackmann Gas Co.

Jersey County is home to a lot of people and these people make up such a wonderful community. Festivals such as this are proof of that. Celebrating this year’s harvest brought a sense of kindness and joy that radiated in the air this past weekend. Wishing a happy and bountiful harvest to all our wonderful and hard-working farmers and to their families. We thank you for all you do.