The Eden Prairie Lions Club’s annual Schooner Days festival rolls into Round Lake Park, 16691 Valley View Road, for a three-day stay starting this Friday, commemorating its 60th anniversary.
Hours are 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
As in previous years, the event will feature longtime favorites such as bingo, a beer garden and carnival rides. High-stakes cover-all bingo games take place Friday and Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Additionally, there will be a pickleball tournament at Staring Lake Park from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Building on last year’s success, event organizers are expanding the family-friendly vendor marketplace. This year’s market fair will feature more than 50 vendors, most of them new to Schooner Days.
Visitors will discover new food trucks, pet gifts, crafts, clasp-less welded jewelry, cribbage boards and other timber creations, custom gnomes, accessories, henna body art and kids’ face painting.
Culinary offerings include Polish pierogies, sushi, hibachi, barbecue dishes, pizza, brat burgers, cakes, bundtinis and streusels. The carnival will offer traditional fare, such as corn dogs, cheese curds, hot dogs, gyros and French fries.
Terry Eggan and his wife, Nancy Vest, who met at Schooner Days as teenagers, are volunteers on the Schooner Days committee. Eggan manages the vendor marketplace, while Vest serves as marketing-communications co-manager with Nancy Sward. They began implementing marketing and website improvements last year.
“Schooner Days has really never had a good website,” Eggan said. “Now we have a great website, which, along with our marketing and promotion, helped increase attendance from 3,000 or 4,000 in previous years to 14,000 last year.”
This year, Eggan hopes to surpass last year’s 14,000 attendees over the event’s three days.
“Last year, we focused a lot on arts and crafts vendors,” Eggan said. “This year, we have a mixture of vendors, so there’s something for everybody. There’s a lot more variety of food, rather than just average carnival food. A lot of people love carnival food, but we have a real variety that people will enjoy.”
With the new additions, Eggan hopes people will be excited about the variety of activities.
“That’s what we’re trying to do – create excitement and interest for everybody so they have a great time and spend a lot of money,” he said. “It’s all for charity.”
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.
Lions KidSight USA will also offer free eye screenings for children ages 6 months to 16 years at Schooner Days. Screenings are from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Parental permission is required.
“Last year, we screened 89 children and referred seven to their eye care professional for further examination,” said Lions Club member Therese Johnson. For more information, contact Johnson at contactus@eplions.com or visit Lions KidSight USA.
Admission to Schooner Days and parking are free.
General parking is across Valley View Road in the community center and high school parking lots. Golf carts will shuttle people to and from the lots. Handicapped parking and the drop-off area are at the Round Lake Park tennis courts.
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