Summer church festivals are a great way to get together with friends, listen to local bands, participate in meat raffles, and play some bingo. But many churches also rely on them to raise much-needed money.
“These festivals can sometimes end up raising as much as 10 percent of the parish’s budget or even more,” Andy Gaertner, Archdiocese of Milwaukee Development Director, tells WTMJ.
Many festivals for this summer have already been cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
“Even if it’s not going directly to the budget, it’s going directly to ministries that are doing the outreach for the parish. So they’re helping the poor, they’re helping with food banks, they’re helping with parishes that we have in Haiti and other parts of the world. So they’re really ministry-based in the long run and it’s important that we find a source of income to replace that income if they’re not going to come in during the festivals.”
For the full interview with Gaertner on Wisconsin’s Morning News, click in the player above.