St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Manteca is “Celebrating Family” during the three-day harvest festival celebration this weekend.
The annual event will begin Friday with a variety of activities from 6 to 9 p.m. starting off with dinner in the gym followed by the drawing for the tent raffle. Proceeds from this drawing will cover the cost of the professionally installed large tent that will provide shade and comfort for all festival goers. This is being done for the second year in a row.
Tickets for the dinner are $20 per person.
For the tent drawing, only 500 tickets are offered with each one costing $100. The grand prize for this is $10,000. The rest of the winning tickets will receive the following: second prize for $2,000; third to fifth for $1,000 each; $500 for the sixth to eighth prizes; and $250 for the lucky 9th to 13th tickets drawn.
All those purchasing tickets for the tent drawing will receive a free dinner on Friday.
All winning tickets will be drawn at 7 p.m. on Friday following the dinner.
Additional drawings for various donated prizes will be held throughout the festival weekend. Grand Prize 1 is an entertainment package that includes a 65” 4K LED TV and a recliner. This and other Grand Prize drawings will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. One need not be present to win. Donation tickets are $1 each or six tickets for $5 and 12 for $10. Other prizes for these drawings include bicycles, Oakland A’s tickets, Apple iPad, $500 from Steve’s Chevrolet G.C., and a variety of “prize bundles.”
A Family Fun Karaoke is also on tap during this year’s celebration in keeping with the “Celebrating Family” theme. This new fun event will be held Friday evening as well, said Jennifer Yeszin who, with husband Craig, are chairpersons of this year’s festival.
The celebration will continue Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The evening’s special offering will include music and dancing featuring perennial favorite Mike Torres Band from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
On the final festival day Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., both the live auction outdoors and silent auction in the gym will be held. The live auction, which in years past featured donated live farm animals but is no longer the practice, will be held on the festival grounds after the Mass which will be around 1 p.m., Yeszin said. She and her husband are assisted by co-chairpersons Michael and Shayne Cano.
No outdoor Mass Sunday;
regular services to be held
In previous years’ festivals, one of the highlights was an outdoor multi-lingual concelebrated Mass at 10 p.m. held on the festival grounds. Not so this year. The festival Mass will be held in the church at the usual 10:30 a.m. service. The normal Sunday services’ schedule will be kept as usual; none will be cancelled.
Various ethnic food, book
sale, children’s games, etc.
The harvest festival is open to the public; admission is free.
In addition to the above activities, featured will be various booths that include children’s games and a wide range of offerings for discriminating palates. A farmer’s market offering a wide variety of fresh produce and a book sale, which are always big attractions, will be there as well. Fresh tacos and other Mexican gastronomical delights, piping hot egg rolls, and the usual festival fare such as pizza and hotdogs will be on sale as well.
The harvest festival is the parish’s largest fund-raiser during the year. It is “through ...generous contributions that we can continue our mission here at St. Anthony’s Parish,” said Pastor Chad Wahl.
The festival fairgrounds is located on the corner of Fremont and Sutter Streets in Manteca. For any other details, look up St. Anthony’s Catholic Church on Facebook, call 209.823.7197, or email harvestfestival@comcast.net.
