St. Alphonsus celebrates annual Autumn Festival

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church celebrated its annual Autumn Festival Sunday.

The event made its return after being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ben Bly, the St. Alphonsus Parish Council president, said that it’s great that the festival returned.

“It feels really good,” Bly said. “There was talk when cases started spiking here in Iowa maybe potentially canceling it. They said, ”No, we need to get together. It’s more about the camaraderie than it’s necessarily about the money we make. If we make a little less money, but we can still get together and have a good time, then it’s worth it.’”

The Autumn Festival began this year with a 10 a.m. Mass led by the Rev. Paul Connolly.

Following Mass, there was a dinner, which allowed people to eat in, carry out or drive up.

The dining options were created due to the lingering and increasing coronavirus cases around the state. It was about keeping people safe.

“The whole thing was about keeping people healthy,” Connolly said. “So what we did is make it so they could drive through, pick up the meal and go, or they could come here get their ticket and eat outside. We had plenty of tables for people to social distance.”

A live and silent auction took place after dinner. The auctions are some of St. Alphonsus’ most significant fundraisers, along with Old Threshers.

The hundreds of items that were auctioned off were donations from the community members and parishioners. Items auctioned ranged anything from a homemade meal, a picture or a grill. This is something that makes Connolly incredibly proud.

“We had many, many generous donors throughout the city,” he said. “The businesses and individual people both at the silent auction and the regular auction really turned out. I’m just very proud of the whole community for supporting us. We had a lot of people that came and were there visiting, not just bidding but being together. That’s the important thing, getting people together. I am just extremely pleased with our hardworking people and the generosity of our greater Mt. Pleasant area community.”

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