Rachel Boegeman and her daughter, Ella, enjoy a ride on the Sizzler amusement ride at Schooner Days on Saturday, June 1. Photo by Gretchen Haynes
The Eden Prairie Lions Club’s annual Schooner Days festival, which marked its 60th anniversary last weekend at Round Lake Park, took an unexpected twist when a power outage plunged the event into darkness Friday night.
Lions Club member Gary Stevens took this photo in the beer tent at 9:45 p.m. Friday at Schooner Days, when “we heard that electricity was expected to be restored sometime after midnight.”
Despite the outage about 10 p.m., which affected a section of Eden Prairie that included the festival, about 500 players in the bingo tent kept their cool.
“Everything was OK, and many people used the flashlight on their phones, so it was an orderly exit by everyone,” said Nancy Vest, the event’s marketing-communications co-manager. “But a startling ending to our first day.”
In an email to members, Lions Club member Gary Stevens described the outage as unprecedented in his 25 years attending Schooner Days. Stevens sent an email each day of the festival with photos detailing the day’s events.
“It will make for pretty good historical stories of ‘Remember when all electricity went out that year at Schooner Days, and we missed the coverall where I think I would have won the $500?'” Stevens said.
The three-day event, buoyed by a picture-perfect Saturday and a Sunday when rain didn’t come until the afternoon, featured longtime favorites such as bingo, a beer garden and carnival rides. Additionally, a pickleball tournament took place at Staring Lake Park on Saturday.
Building on last year’s success, organizers expanded the family-friendly vendor marketplace to include more than 50 vendors, many new to Schooner Days. Offerings included food trucks with Polish pierogies and streusels, pet gifts, clasp-less welded jewelry and custom gnomes.
Festival-goers enjoyed the festivities at Schooner Days on Saturday at Round Lake Park. The event, marking its 60th anniversary, featured carnival rides, a vendor marketplace and a variety of food options. Photo courtesy of Gary Stevens/Eden Prairie Lions Club
Attendance was higher this year by about 1,000. Last year, 14,000 people attended the festival.
Lions Club member Mike Moriarity pulls the prairie schooner at the end of Schooner Days on Sunday. The prairie schooner, a type of covered wagon and the festival’s namesake, is stored at True Friends Camp Eden Wood when not on display. Photo by Gary Stevens/Eden Prairie Lions Club
“It was very, very busy, especially Saturday,” Vest said. “I was there then, and when I walked in, I heard a guy exclaim to his wife, ‘Wow! This is a lot more and a lot better than I expected!’ I heard lots of people comment that ‘This is like the state fair!'”
Lions KidSight USA offered free eye screenings for children ages 6 months to 16 years at Schooner Days, screening 106 kids and making four referrals for follow-up with an eye doctor.
In the bingo tent at Schooner Days on Saturday, a woman holds up a signed photo of Minnesota Twins’ Dan Gladden scoring against Atlanta Braves’ catcher Greg Olson in Game 1 of the 1991 World Series. Olson, the general manager at Bearpath Golf & Country Club, stands behind her in a blue shirt, along with Lions Club member Mike Kelly (right). She ended the evening winning $600 in bingo and the autographed photo. Photo by Gary Stevens/Eden Prairie Lions Club
“We had an amazing amount of volunteers and needed them more than ever to keep everything going,” Vest added. “Mike Moriarity, the (festival’s) volunteer coordinator, did an amazing job. Everyone did.”
The Eden Prairie Lions Club, known for its philanthropic endeavors, donates all proceeds from Schooner Days (its biggest fundraising event of the year) to various charitable causes, including the Minnesota Lions Gift of Sight Eye Bank, Minnesota Lions Hearing Foundation, Can Do Canines and True Friends Camp Eden Wood.
Final numbers on money raised during this year’s event will be available in about a week.
