It was a made to order day, as the Kjeldgaard family opened their property to the community for the Eighth Annual Riverbend Ranch Charity Carnival on Saturday, June 27. The upper parking lot of the River Road location remained full and a steady stream of cars came in and out between the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. event hours.

The event is hosted by the family annually to raise funds for designated ministries of the family’s choosing. This year a total of over $30,000 was raised and will benefit Agape Children’s Ministry and Without Permission.

“We still have some donations coming in, so we just may make $40,000,” mother, missionary and event hostess Lisa Kjeldgaard stated. “We raised more the day of the carnival than we ever have.”

The hostess shared she and a few family members attended Oakdale’s Farmers’ Market the week before to promote the event. That’s an endeavor she feels may have been accountable for 35 of the families who stated they were first time visitors to the event on the sign-in sheet.

“We feel so blessed that we get to do this for the community,” she said of the hundreds who visited the carnival during the five-hour period. “People look forward to it every year. Then I love that I get to give a nice check to both Without Permission and Agape as a result.”

Carnival games as well as pony rides, a dunk tank, cake walk, bounce houses, live music and food made for the perfectly well-rounded home town carnival.

“This is the first night that I actually didn’t go to bed the night before the carnival, because I was just so excited,” she shared. “At the end of the day I am just always so incredibly humbled by the hundreds of volunteers that show up to help us. We could not do this without them.”

Persons interested in donating to the event fundraiser may still do so by visiting www.carnivalforcharity.com.