On Saturday, April 25, the inaugural Mercer Festival will take place on the St. David’s campus. This is the parish’s Spring Festival and will feature not only live music and entertainment, food, and moon bounces and slides for the kids, but also a 5k race and a 1 mile Fun Run/Walk. While the festival has garnered better-than-expected sponsor support, the organizing committee needs one final element to ensure the success of the festival: involvement by the St. David’s community.

According to the Festival Manager, Mark Steffler, the 5k race needs roughly 500 participants to gain credibility as a fixture on the area’s running calendar. As he puts it, “For a first year event, we need 400-500 registered participants on the starting line at 8:30 am to pull this off. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter if you run the 5K fast, slow, walk it, crawl, or even finish-- having a big crowd at the start is paramount for a successful event.” The 5k race will be timed, and is a USATF sanctioned race. The 1 mile Fun Run/Walk is designed for those wishing to involve young children. While the organizing committee hopes to attract 200 to 500 registrants from outside the community, it needs about 200 registrants from the parish itself to reach its goal. Currently fewer than 20 parishioners have signed up for the race.

The Mercer Festival is about more than the race, however. Many free entertainment options will exist for those who simply want to come to St. David’s to enjoy a day of fellowship. Susan Wall and Carousel Puppets will perform the popular Spring Fling at 10 am. She and her puppets are well established in the DC area, having performed with colorful marionettes and hand puppets for over 25 years. The festival will also have live music, breakfast and lunch food options, and old-fashioned games such as tug-of-war and three-legged races. Volunteers are needed to help run many of these elements of the festival.

The stated goal of the festival by the Vestry is Outreach. The organizers have set a goal of growing the parish by 10 to 20 committed families. By having racers from outside the St. David’s community, they hope to expose new families to God’s love. Additionally, all proceeds from the race and fun run will go toward REACH fundraising. The festival will meet its monetary goal if it raises between $1,000 and $5,000 for REACH. In order to reach the goals of increased membership and REACH funding, the committee calls on the parish for volunteers to help the day of the festival and for runners to take part in the 5k race.