Tom Reich and Suzie Fleita: Involving Families At Our Lady of Ransom

Tom Reich and Suzie Fleita discovered a lot of things in the course of planning Our Lady of Ransom's Oktoberfest celebration: that most of the good oompa bands are booked by May, that it's easier to let the caterer cook, and that parents with kids participate in parish events when someone asks them to.

That last issue is important. Fleita said that last winter, Rev. Chris Gustafson, the pastor of Our Lady of Ransom Catholic Church, asked her if she would form a Family Events Committee to draw more parents with younger children into parish life. Fleita and her husband have three children.

"He wanted to get adults with kids involved," she recalled.

Earlier:

The Family Events Committee first planned a summertime Feed My Starving Children event, in which families packed food for children in food-insecure parts of the world.

Reich, a father of two who recently started getting involved in parish events, and Fleita both started planning the Oktoberfest back in May, and Fleita recalled most of the oompa bands were already booked.

"We planned where the party would be--the setup, where to place the food, the band, the beer, to keep everything flowing," said Reich. There was also a face painting area for kids at the event, held Sept. 17.

"We knew that the food would be our biggest challenge," said Fleita, adding they contemplated cooking it themselves. However, caterer and parishioner Jerry Kowalczyk proposed a menu of bratwurst, hot dogs, German potato salad, pretzels and sauerkraut, and the committee decided to let him do the food. His pricing was very fair, Fleita observed.

Coordinating the event involved having other volunteers, including young teens who needed service hours for Confirmation, bring 35 tables and 350 chairs from the building out to the site of the fest in the parking lot.

"I've never planned anything this big before," Reich said.

The oompa band played part of the time, alternating with a band called Diving for Dynamite, which played 70s, 80s and 90s covers.

About 400 people showed up, and Reich said perhaps a third, mostly older parishioners and those with young children, left after the $50,000 raffle drawing took place around 9:30. (The raffle was organized by another committee, headed by Reneda Mittman.) But those who remained spent the time dancing and visiting.

"I was so happy with the way it turned out," said Reich. "The next day at church, people I didn't even know came up to me and said what a great time they had."

Fleita and Reich hope the Family Events Commitee will do about three events a year. They're entertaining ideas for events, which so far include a family games night or a Breakfast With Santa.

Get more info. Like Niles Patch on Facebook