Polka dance, art fest, church picnics will fill your weekend

This week, a huge division of opinion nearly cleaved your Belleville News-Democrat newsroom into two nearly equal pieces. No, not Trump or Clinton. Not ketchup or mayo on fries. And not the ever-present over/under debate on toilet paper.

It was polka dancing.

That’s right, there are folks in this newsroom who are “heck, yeah!” fans of polka, then there those with a wrinkled-forehead “huh?” response. There does seem to be a geographic element to the difference. But we’re all still friendly as long as we avoid any discussion of the latest changes to the Associated Press Stylebook.

Do you polka?

For this polka dance, break out the coconut shells and grass skirts. The Sunday afternoon polka dance has a Hawaiian theme at the Polish Hall at 826 Greenwood St. in Madison. The dance itself should start a little before 3 p.m., according to a club announcement, right after the The St Louis Metro Polka Club meeting at 2 p.m. (You can apply to join at www.folkfire.org/polka/application.html.) Music by Rich Cullen will end at 6 p.m. For more information, go to www.folkfire.org/polka/ or call 314-867-7897. Admission to the dance is $7; sandwiches will be available to purchase.

Do you salute?

The Midwest Salute to the Arts continues from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in Moody Park in Fairview Heights. There’s live music all day, including the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America Starlifter from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Arts other than music represented at the park include those from a juried art show of clay, drawing, painting, craft, jewelry and more. Paul Bayer will be showing his works made of stone as well.

Go to http://midwestsalute.com/ for more information.

Take me to church

▪  Holy Childhood parish picnic and fish fry: The picnic continues from 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Holy Childhood Church, 419 E. Church St., Mascoutah. Saturday includes a chicken dinner, lightning raffle at 5:30 p.m., bingo at 6:30 p.m. Beer garden, pet land and games for all ages open at 5 p.m.

▪  St. Paul Kirchenfest, at 1412 Ninth St. in Highland, has a mega flea market, 5K and 10K races as well as a 25-mile bike race, a polka Mass, live music and more from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

▪  St. Teresa parish picnic, at 1108 Lebanon Ave. in Belleville, will have a fried chicken dinner, quilt bingo, live music, beer garden, raffles, silent auction, carnival rides and kids activities from 4 p.m. to midnight Saturday.

Take me home

Waterloo homecoming has live music, carnival rides and games continuing on Saturday in downtown Waterloo. The parade starts at 5 p.m.; food and drinks will be sold by local organizations.

Support local schools

▪  Buy stuff at the O’Fallon Township High School yard sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, and support the OTHS band program. All items are donated for sale.

▪  The family of a girl, who died at age 12 but would have gone on to graduate this school year from Belleville East, is setting up a scholarship in her name. The family of Amari Clark and the nonprofit organzation Project Compassion will host a “memorial birthday scholarship lunch” at 3 p.m. Sunday at Shenanigan’s, 15 N. 64th St. in Belleville, with the proceeds funding a scholarship for a 2017 graduate of Belleville East. For more information, call 618-567-4989 or 618-397-1790.

Way across the river

The annual Festival of Nations is this weekend in St. Louis’ Tower Grove Park, where you can stroll among more than 40 food booths, dozens of gift booths and enjoy children’s activities and dance lessons. For more information, go to www.fesitvalofnationsstl.org.

This story was originally published August 26, 2016 at 9:19 AM with the headline "Polka dance, art fest, church picnics will fill your weekend."