Winona Lake Police Chief Joe Hawn drives the train out of the Miller Sunset Pavilion Saturday during the annual Family Festival.

Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

WINONA LAKE – With the annual Family Festival in the Miller Sunset Pavilion for the first time, the occasional rain outside Saturday couldn’t keep a few hundred people from enjoying the free three-hour event for Winona Lake residents.

This is the fifth year for the festival.

“Before that, we had the community dinner that we did probably for 25 years, and then we wanted to do a more family-oriented thing, so we started about five years ago to do the Family Festival,” said Craig Allebach, Winona Lake Town Manager.

Animal-Grams, North Manchester, brought a petting zoo to the festival. They had silkies, rabbits, guinea pigs, a pot-belly pig, a goat and ducks.

Train rides were available from the pavilion to the park and around town. Police Chief Joe Hawn could be seen enjoying driving the train.

Peddle cars were a fun distraction for the older guys, while the younger kids seemed to be enjoying the inflatables. And kids of all ages enjoyed having their faces painted.

The menu for the Family Festival in Winona Lake this year included pulled pork, mac & cheese, watermelon, chips, lemonade and a chocolate chip cookie and/or ice cream for dessert.

At 4:30 p.m. was bingo with prizes., with dinner starting at 5 p.m. Dinner this year included pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, slices of fresh watermelon, bags of chips, chocolate chip cookies and lemonade. Free ice cream also was available – chocolate, vanilla or Superman.

The door prizes for Winona Lake residents included baskets from shops at The Village at Winona and gift cards from The Village, some of the shops and Meijer.

“This is a free event for the Winona Lake residents and we do it every year, usually the first weekend in August. Just a great event for all generations, kind of a tri-generational thing,” Allebach said. “So we’ve got more seniors here, we kind of do the bingo for them. We’ve got kids’ activities, and then we have a dinner that, again, is all free for Winona Lake residents.”

It’s great to have it in the pavilion, he said, because the canopy overhead keeps everyone out of the rain and they don’t have to rent a tent.

Allebach said chairs and tables were set up for 250 people and those were “pretty well filled up.”

The festival is sponsored by the town of Winona Lake and the park.

“(Park Director) Holly Hummitch really is the driving force behind putting things together for us,” Allebach stated.