MICHAEL PISTELLA Jimmy Helton, a driver with Reithoffer Shows, finishes delivering The Super Cat ride which will be part of the St. Andrew Catholic School 2009 Festival Jan. 15-18. For information, and for a full list of raffle and poker prizes, contact St. Andrew Catholic School at 772-3922.

St. Andrew Catholic School’s Annual Festival is scheduled to kick off Thursday for its 18th year, bringing four days of food, fun and surprises.

Organizers are expecting “thousands” of people to attend over the four-day period.

The festival will offer not only rides and a large variety of carnival foods, but a silent auction, a Texas Hold ’em Poker Tournament, a raffle and live entertainment.

Colette Ott, assistant principal at St. Andrew Catholic School for eight years, said the festival’s draw is that it truly offers something for everybody. Plus, it is a great way for faculty, staff, parents and their children to grow closer.

“It provides a lot of community spirit within our school,” she said. “It’s a great way for the parents and students to get to know each other.”

Ott will work closely with the silent auction, helping to put together some of the baskets.

She said many of the auction baskets are themed, put together by individual classes. Most of the baskets will be available for well below the retail cost of the collected items.

“They are going to be a really good deal,” Ott said. “Very rarely do these baskets reach retail prices. They usually go for less than retail prices.”

The Texas Hold ’em Tournament is a big draw, too, with multiple prizes available for the winners.

A $100 buy-in puts players in position to win a big screen high-definition television, a laptop computer or a personalized fishing trip, among other interesting prizes.

The auction and the poker tournament play into the festival’s ultimate mission: to act as a fund-raiser for the school.

“This is the major fund-raiser for the school,” Ott said. “We raise in excess of $100,000, but a lot of that depends on the weather.”

She said the festival would not be possible without the aid of volunteers, many of whom are there for the entire four-day stretch.

The volunteer crew is made up of members of the community and parents, many of whom cook their own food in the school’s kitchen for sale at the event.

Then there is the big draw, the rides themselves. Tickets are available for single rides, but Ott recommends buying a “ride bracelet” for $55. It allows the wearer unlimited access to the rides for the entire four-day period.

“It’s much better because it covers the entire festival and saves people a lot of money,” she said.

For more information, and for a full list of raffle and poker prizes, contact St. Andrew Catholic School at 772-3922.

Operating times vary over the course of the four-day festival.