2 minute read
St. Francis Xavier Festival and Marketplace Celebrates Parish and Community
The feast day of our namesake, St. Francis Xavier, is coming up and the parish is planning a celebration with the entire community. The St. Francis Xavier Festival and Marketplace will have something for everyone. This year, the festival will be held on Saturday, Dec. 4.
Chelsea Davis, Festival Chair, has been excited to see the festival grow over the last few years.
Advertisement
“The festival is for the whole community, even outside of Stillwater,” Chelsea says. “We invite all of the churches in Stillwater and the surrounding areas.”
While this is the third official festival for our parish, there is a history of festival and market celebrations in the parish. The festival as it is today began the same year that the new church building was opened. The festival is a collaboration of parishioners, the Women’s Group, and the Early Childhood Development Center. Volunteers take on different aspects of the festival.
“It builds the camaraderie of the parish,” Chelsea says. “It’s nice to see people wanting to volunteer, physically or through donations.”
There are many ways for parishioners to volunteer or contribute. The festival has a café, a raffle, crafts and children’s activities, and baked goods and freezer meals are sold. The ECDC runs a silent auction as a fundraiser for the program. Volunteers are needed to run activities and serve as cashiers. Donations of food will be needed for the café, baked goods, and freezer meals.
This year, the festival will have a Spanish translator in order to reach and include more families.
“I think we’re going to be building more of a community,” Chelsea says. “We are hoping to get more of the Spanish-speaking community involved.”
Chelsea is excited to have the festival back, as last year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We might not be able to do as much as we hoped in the time of the pandemic,” Chelsea says. “We might not see as many people as we did before. But it might surprise us.”
The festival and marketplace will have activities for the whole family. Come to shop, support your community, and enjoy good food and activities!
“This year, we are going to have more children’s activities and more to do,” Chelsea says.
The festival will be held in the parish hall and children’s activities will be available in the youth lounge and the gym. The doors will open at 9:30 a.m. and the festival will run until 3 p.m. Be sure to refer to the church bulletin and festival flyers for more information!
