Today is the day of the biggest festa that has ever been seen in the Maceió Branch, the first annual (and possibly last) Feira Familiar. As one entered the front gate of the church, he was met by a money changer collecting entrance fees of Cr$3,00 per family or Cr$1,00 per person or Cr$0,50 for children. The next vital point was a ticket booth which sold ingressos of Cr$0,10 (100 beans) each to be used in the many booths.
Out in the garage we had a sponge throw, ring toss, fishpond, bottle throw, ball in the basket, dart throw, and ball in the mouth booths. The fishpond and bottle throw proved to be the most popular booths. Each of these booths was two ingressos each.
Inside we had the food booth, under direction of the Relief Society, selling popcorn, candy, hotdogs, punch, cookies, and cakes. Food is always popular. A marriage booth attracted what few teenagers showed up. A cakewalk and the quebra potes were both very popular. All the prizes won at the several booths and everything else we were trying to sell were featured in a general store, Lojas SUD. In every part the rooms of the church, the chapel excepted, were decorated. A carnival atmosphere was in the air.
Starting at 7:30 this morning we slipped over to the church to finish decorating and everything else incident to the fair’s opening at 3:00. How we ever made it I’ll never know, but we met the deadline and the doors opened on schedule. Afternoon traffic was slow. In the early evening almost everything stopped. All of a sudden, people showed up and we kept ourselves more than busy. Zezira showed up with the hotdogs at 7:00, not realizing that we were starting at 3:00. The festivities ran on until after 10:00 (and we had thought of stopping at 8:30).
The members at no point had ever caught on exactly the scale of this carnival we were planning. Hence, not as many people as we needed showed up. The purpose of all this was to raise money for an organ in an animating way. But some of the members did not realize money was involved and did not tell invited friends to come prepared. Without a doubt the fair was wholly animating.
The help we received from Elders Morrell and Prisbrey was invaluable. Never would the four of us survived without them. They leave tomorrow morning on the 6:00 Recife bus.
We collected Cr$463,00. Considering how many people attended, we must have wrung every penny out of them. That represents about Cr$230,00 profit. It if had not been for Aldo, the fair would have been a flop.
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