While balmy temperatures contradicted what is expected for a cool, crisp October evening, the second Bavarian-styled Oktoberfest at Our Lady of the Lake Church followed in the footsteps of last year’s as over 2000 people came out to enjoy the evening. The German fare, Um pah band and music by local performers entertained as the knockwursts, bratwursts and German chocolate cake were washed down with a variety of beers, wines and sodas. For those not in a German food mood, ham, turkey, salads and other desserts were available as well.

Father Bryan Page, Chairman of the event, explained the planning, “I ask very good and competent people to do things and those very good and competent people tell me to do things and it all comes together. Last year we hit all the expectations we were shooting for so we said, ‘Let’s do it again.’”

Proceeds from the event go to benefit the Parish children of the school and to the kid’s youth ministry. “In our youth ministry, we have about a quarter of all the high school kids in the town,” Father Page added.

“Last year, our committee planned to have everything ready by Friday before the event,” Father Page explained. “When we hit that goal, we were all sitting around with all this enthusiasm and nothing to do. That’s why we decided to have Kinderfest on Friday this year.”  Kinderfest is the festival for children featuring strolling entertainment, arts and crafts, carnival games and food vendors.

New this year was Gewaltig Fünfzig-Fünfzig (“Enormous 50/50 raffle”). Three winners were chosen to split the prize money. As of this writing, the names of the winners were not available.

“We are actually having two celebrations this time,” Pastor Mike Hanly said. “A couple of weeks ago, we were informed by the U.S. Department of Education that we were chosen as a ‘Blue Ribbon School.’ This is awarded to high-achieving schools in the fields of language arts and math. In addition, they looked at over all academics, social services and athletics. There were only about 300 schools in the country given this award.”

Marilyn Kessler, a teacher at OLL for ten years added, “They had very stringent requirements and an arduous 40-50 page report. Between the parents, students, faculty and staff, it was a joint effort and we are ecstatic.

According to Colleen Dougherty, Chairwoman of Communications for the festival  committee, “Unlike last year, this year almost all the food was cooked by the parishioners. We had 18 people on the committee so it was a team effort. Much of this success depends on asking the right people. It is a tremendous amount of work.” Jill Corrigan, Chairwoman of Logistics and Budget, added, “This year we had 2027 tickets sold, that’s 200-300 more people than last year. We started planning this year’s Oktoberfest the week after last year’s success.”

Sister Mary Agnes Sullivan, who has been at Our Lady of the Lake School for 21 years and is also the Principal, proudly commented, “One of the nicest things is to see all the alumni returning to the Oktoberfest as grown-ups. I hope they know they graduated from a ‘Blue Ribbon School.’ Getting that award is a nice highlight to the evening.”