Bay Fest

Many churches do many things through the year to raise funds. Messiah Lutheran Church has (with God's help) developed a single fundraising event to a level that provides for most of our annual funding needs. Bay Fest, Corpus Christi's three day block party, is an annual event hosted by the city, to allow churches and non-profit's a fundraising venue.

Messiah Lutheran Church sells lemonade from three mobile carts stationed around the Bay Fest crowd. From these carts we sell lemonade by the cup (and I mean we sell, sell, sell). Messiah Lutheran has been one of the top revenue making groups every year that we have been involved with Bay Fest.

Once again the church membership has put our own unique stamp on this project. The carts were made, painted and maintained by Messiah members. A small travel trailer was rebuilt from the ground up as the mixing, supply and staging point for the lemonade sales. Aprons were hand made with the words "let any man who thirsts come unto me." Our members gather for fellowship and daily instructions at the trailer before setting out to "man the cart's".  Some folks work more than one shift and they can come back to the trailer to visit, eat and rest before returning to a cart.

 A crew of four people for a two-hour shift mans each cart. We have one mixer, whose only job is to keep twenty-eight, 5 gallon coolers full of fresh lemonade. Two or three people pull large wagons, filled with coolers full of lemonade, 20# bags of ice, cups, paper towels, disinfectant spray, trash bags and other things to keep each cart supplied, and the workers happy. This is a fun time, a time to get to know each other better, and fellowship for all involved.