Fall Festival at Mableton Elementary School

October 29, 2021

For a number of years, Mableton First Baptist Church has helped with the Fall Festival at Mableton Elementary School, just a block or so from our church.

We arrived in the Cafeteria of the school at about 5:30pm for the start time at 6pm. It is calm now as we set up the snocone machine and accessories plus the popcorn machine.

We had a good crew of helpers. L-R:Al and Janet Vineyard had worked very hard to organize the event. David and Derinda Moore with Xander Reyes between them set up the snocone machine. Noah Thompson, Wanda Willey and Mary Brumbelow stand by the syrup dispensers. Pastor Doug Thompson and Tony Brumbelow are set to hand out flyers for the church and for the Trunk or Treat event at the church tomorrow night.

Shortly after the doors opened at 6pm, the large Cafeteria was packed with costumed children and their families. It was the largest crowd I had seen at one of these events.

The adjoining gymnasium was also packed with games and displays, and the halls were packed up until the close of the gathering at 7:30. We kept estimating about five hundred people that we interacted with.

The free snocones were very popular and again it was estimated that we may have given out up to five hundred. We used all the ice in the two large coolers that we had brought. Jo and Wayne Templeton had joined Xander and Noah in working the snocone machine to produce the ice cones. Amee and her daughter are dispensing the multiple flavors of syrup on the cones.

The popcorn machine was also mobbed and the number of bags dispensed was into the hundreds like the snocones. This is the second shift on the popcorn with Philip Vineyard, Leigh Miller and Katie Vineyard staying busy. We had filled the boxes shown at the end of the table with probably forty bags each, and at this point they had given out all their backup bags. Becky Ridgway, Marcha Thompson, and Rod Nave had distributed popcorn on the first shift. Lots of the kids, and adults, seemed to be surprised that we were giving it out free to both. It was good for us to follow the theme "... they came, and they gave without taking ...".

The snocone line stayed busy the entire hour and a half plus.

Costumed children with snocones and popcorn were in evidence all around the big crowded Cafeteria area.

The line extended from here to the doors of the building for the entire time until the external doors were closed at 7:30pm..

There was a positive spirit of celebration with this large crowd, and we felt blessed to have been able to contribute to it.