GraceFest offers fun from pumpkin golf to pie throwing

By Tammy Keith

LITTLE ROCK — GraceFest Fall Festival in Conway is all about the "F's" - fun, fellowship, food and free.

The fourth annual communitywide event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Grace United Methodist Church, 1075 Hogan Lane.

Libbi Whitehurst, a member of the planning committee, said, "It's part of our reaching-people mission, reaching out to the community and offering a fun place for fellowship and having a good time."

Whitehurst said the "carnivallike atmosphere" includes a variety of games and activities, inside and outside the church.

There will be bounce houses, ring toss, T-ball, face painting, a rock-climbing wall, two balloon artists and "something new this year is a pie-throwing contest," Whitehurst said. It replaces the chilly dunking booth and will feature the pastors and staff as targets.

"It's on a schedule, and the schedule will be posted so they can be sure to be there when their favorite staff member is," Whitehurst said.

Hawk Coleman, communications director and office administrator at Grace, said he was in the dunking booth last year, and this year he'll be a part of the pie-throwing event. He isn't sure whether he's looking forward to that.

"It depends on how heavy the pie plates are," he said, laughing. "As long as they don't use glass pie plates, I guess we'll be fine."

He said last year's event was laugh-out-loud fun for the children and adults.

Whitehurst said pumpkin golf is a "lot like Putt-Putt," but there is a "huge pumpkin" made by two church members to aim at, she said.

Local agencies are coming, including the Conway Fire Department with its smoke house and the SWAT team. Arkansas Children's Hospital will have a booth doing "finger casting for fun - that's a huge hit with the kids," Whitehurst said. In addition, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will be there with its laser-shooting game."

No festival would be complete without fair-style food. GraceFesthas that, too.

There will be hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy - so popular there will be two machines this year, Whitehurst said, and chips and drinks.

Inside the church, the Grace youth group will sponsor the video game Guitar Hero.

The event brought together an estimated 1,000 people last year, Whitehurst said.

"It's hard to get an exact count, but people can register if they want to, because there are door prizes for kids," she said.

The event takes many volunteers to be successful, Whitehurst said.

"We're very fortunate that the DBS (Delta Beta Sigma) ladies from the high school, the sorority, they volunteer, and they man a lot of the stations. We couldn't do it without them," Whitehurst said.

erybody's invited, because you'll have a good time whether you have kids or not," she said.

More information is available by calling the church at (501)"This is totally free, and ev- 329-6056.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 133, 140 on 10/05/2008