There was plenty of hotel space and enough restaurants to satisfy everyone. The Badlands Community Facility was a great venue. Two sections of the ballrooms were used, one for services and the other for banquets, a dance, choir practice and youth instruction. There were TV monitors that displayed pages from the festival brochure. The lighting and sound system was state of the art. Garrett Lesh did a great job handling the technical work, and it was his first time. Mary Jo Rydholm did a fine job organizing the music. As always, the children’s choir was a big hit. When they sang, the children wore gold crowns, which they made during youth instruction.

The messages were encouraging and were quickly posted online. Instead of sermonettes, feast coordinator John LaBissioniere had young people come up each day and give a millennial scripture reading. Many commented on how much they enjoyed that. Also for the young people, Mr. LaBissioniere went through one character trait each day and gave a printed card summarizing them as treasure on the last day of the Feast.

Highlights include a catered dinner followed by a dance, coffee service each day, and the senior’s reception. It included a potluck and featured background music and Feast photos projected on a screen. All the leftover food was used for a group lunch on the Eighth Day. The collections more than covered the cost of the meals. 

A donation of $500 was given to the Rosebud School of the Arts to help with their fundraising efforts as they try to move from famine to feast. About 40 attended a dinner theatre production of Mark Twain’s “The Diaries of Adam and Eve” and many went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum and did the Atlas Coal Mine Tour. Some took advantage of the breakfast area at the Ramada to socialize and play cards in the evenings. Comments were made that it would be nice to come back here again in the future.