Rain doesn?t take away blessings of annual summer festival

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

Sister Rita Epple of St. Dominic Catholic Church of Metz had to give in when asked about the famous saying that it never rains on the church celebration known as the annual summer festival. Well, it rained Sunday at about the time the event started, so Epple isn?t sure they can keep saying that.

?Just after church we were here setting up for the Chinese raffle and the black clouds started to appear over the trees,? said parishoner Rita Kleiber. ?I thought, ?Oh boy! Are we going to get rained on.? At 12:15 p.m., the wind blew and a driving rain storm send everyone running for cover. ?Twenty minutes later, the skies cleared and there were beautiful white fluffy clouds,? said Kleiber. ?We were sure the raindrops were holy water.?

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THING is for sure, they were blessed in Metz again, and with the state of the economy in Michigan, even more so. Epple said she printed 3,000 tickets for the Chinese raffle, used as a major fundraiser for the church to pay for the winter heating bills and maintenance of the buildings, and ?the initial tickets were sold out by 2 p.m.?

There were 104 prizes donated this year. In all, $3,702 was raised, Epple said, which is up from $2,831. The scrounged up another thousand tickets and sold those as well. Along with the car show, kids games and live entertainment, 575 barbecue chicken dinners were served.

The annual meal, which brings folks from all over northeast Michigan, sold out at 4:30 p.m., keeping at least one tradition alive and well. Members of the St. Dominic church family has been celebrating the summer festival for 30 years.