Published: July 03, 2009 10:40 pm         

Brazil holiday bash helping worthy causes

BRAZIL — Excitement, fun and lots of tasty food for good causes is available today at the Brazil Rotary Club Fourth of July Celebration in Forest Park.

Hundreds of people enjoyed the carnival Friday afternoon and several Wabash Valley churches and other organizations used the event to raise money for worthy causes.

“Our goal is to be ahead of the punch,” said Tom Hess, pastor of the Berea Christian Church in Brazil, which is selling food and snacks to raise money for volunteer disaster relief efforts.

Berea volunteers have been to several disaster sites to help victims in the past, Hess said.

The church sent three teams to the Gulf Coast to help with rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

“If we can’t show people we care in a practical way, we might as well just shut up,” Hess explained.

Other Clay County churches were taking advantage of the carnival to raise money for good causes, as well. The Saline City Community Church was selling Italian beef and fried Oreos to raise money for its youth group while the Friendly Benwood Community Church was selling chicken and noodles for its youth camp.

“Chicken and noodles is our specialty,” said Perry Mager, president of the youth camp’s board of directors.

Meanwhile, several yards away, the midway was coming to life about 5 p.m. as rides started to open and carnival games began.

“It was fun,” said Morgan Trivett after climbing off of the Dragon Wagon, a child-sized roller coaster at the festival. “On the curves it was a lot faster,” she said.

Other rides at the carnival included the Octopus, a Tilt-a-Whirl, a large Ferris wheel, the Ali Baba and many others. Teenage girls’ screams pierced the air as the Ali Baba ride took groups of seated riders about 50 feet into the air.

The festival also includes traditional carnival treats, such as funnel cakes, corn dogs and cotton candy.

Carnival games are also a large part of the Brazil Rotary’s festival. Dart throwing at small balloons, basketball shooting and other traditional standbys could be found up and down the carnival midway.

“This is our first year here,” said Joe Kuta, the operator of The Mouse Game, which involves a mouse running from a wooden box into one of 96 holes on a rotating table. If you place a quarter on a spot that includes the correct number, you win a prize. “People love the mouse,” Kuta said.

Very rarely does a mouse escape the rotating table and jump out, Kuta said. Once, however, a mouse that was brand new to the game managed to leap off of the spinning table and land in a woman’s popcorn, he recalled. “Popcorn went everywhere,” he said. “But she came back the next day.”

Ring toss is another carnival favorite at the Brazil festival.

“They must put grease on the bottles,” said Drake Beauchamp, 9, who threw more than a dozen small plastic rings at glass bottles only to have them all miss their intended targets. Still, Drake was given a hat and a paddleball game as a consolation prize for trying and said he was looking forward to playing more games.

Also at the festival, the Northview Marching Knights were serving up smoothies and Pepsi products to raise money for their defending state champion band and color guard units.

“We practice a lot,” said Taylor Mikles, a senior at Northview, explaining why her school’s band program is historically so successful. “We just finished band camp [Friday],” she said. Mikles was joined in the Northview tent by her mother, Peggy Mikles as well as North Clay eighth-grader Emilee Edington and Northview freshman Kaitlynn Roe.

Other organizations raising money at the festival include the Carbon Baptist Church, Christian Fellowship Campers, the McKinley Hill Church and the First United Methodist Church, which was selling Ritter’s Frozen Custard.

The Brazil Rotary Club’s Fourth of July Celebration festival continues today in Forest Park. The festival is scheduled to conclude this evening with a fireworks display beginning at dusk. The fireworks display will be set to music played on WSDM, the CROCK 92.7 FM, according to the Brazil Rotary Club’s Web site.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.