La Mesa Fall Festival is Oct. 16

VIVA La Mesa Community Group and La Mesa Lions Club will hold the first annual Fall Festival, 3-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at La Mesa Community Center walking path, 744 San Jose Road in La Mesa, about 16 miles south of Las Cruces City Hall via south Main Street.

The event is open to the public and there is no charge to attend.

State Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Doña Ana, will be the emcee and will be among the cooks preparing hamburgers and hotdogs that will be free to the first several hundred festival attendees, along with chips and drinks. Kona Ice will be on hand and San Jose Church will provide aqua frescas. The VFW will have popcorn, event coordinator Lyla Wagley.

The festival will include an estimated 30 vendors, including Carmelite nuns, selling baked goods, arts and crafts, and local farm goods, including pecans, honey and flowers. Community outreach at the festival will include the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department, Empowerment Congress, Matter of Balance (preventing senior falls), VFW Post 4383, La Mesa Lions Club (giving out chalk for Chalk the Walk), Diabetes Outreach and organizations from New Mexico State University and the University of Texas at El Paso.

VIVA La Mesa will conduct a raffle at the festival, with prizes donated by participating vendors. A children’s carnival will have games and prizes. There will also be a corn hole tournament with trophies and prizes awarded.

Members of Gadsden High School ROTC, La Mesa Lions and the community are event volunteers.

La Mesa’s walking path was completed last summer with funding from state Rep. Ray Lara and former state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, both D-Doña Ana. Lara and Hamblen secured funds for a playground to be added to the site.