NATCHEZ — Fall means fun, food and family at Holy Family Early Learning Center.

The school is in the final stages of preparation for Saturday’s annual Fall Festival to take place at the school.

The festival is one of four fundraisers organized every year to help the school meet its budget requirements.

“This is the only one that brings together the entire community,” said Sister Bernadette McNamara, financial director at the school. “The parish, the school, the families and the community work together to make this a success.”

This year’s festival includes the yearly garage sale, bake sale, games, dinner plates and raffle items.

The garage sale and bake sale begin at 7 a.m. and games in the school’s courtyard open at 10 a.m. Dinner plates go on sale at 11 a.m. for a $5 donation.

“The men in the parish are grilling chicken,” Sister McNamara said. “It is going to be wonderful chicken.”

Festival activities all wrap up at 3 p.m.

Festival chairman Faye Barnes said the raffle prizes are always popular.

With multiple cash prizes, gift cards and electronics up for grabs, this year should be no different.

“I think people look forward to the prizes that we offer each year,” she said. “We have some good treats for the raffle.”

Barnes said the community support of the festival is evident when it comes time to collect donations for the raffle. She said in her 18 years of organizing the fall festival, she has developed relationships with community businesses and organizations and now those groups are more than willing to help.

“I like it now that when I go into a business they say ‘Ms. Faye, what do you need this year?’” Barnes said. “And in one or two days something comes in the mail or they are ready for me to pick it up.

“That is what makes this successful, everyone wants to be involved.”

Tickets for the raffle are $2 each. Winners will be drawn Saturday, but winners do not have to be present.

Children will have plenty to keep them busy as well with festival games filling the school’s courtyard.

Games like milk toss, duck pond and ring-a-bottle are favorites each year. Tickets for games are 25 cents each and games will require four tickets each.

The school currently has 95 students from 2 years old to kindergarten. Yearly tuition is $310.

“This fundraiser helps keep our tuition down,” Sister McNamara said. “If we don’t have successful fundraisers our tuition would have to go up and many of our families wouldn’t be able to afford to send their children here.

“This money keeps our engines running.”

The school hopes to raise $10,000 with this year’s festival.

“God has been good to us and we were in the black last year,” Sister McNamara said. “Right now we are very stable, but we still need this to be a success.”