By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

"I like it. It's fun," Noble said of playing carnival barker. "I get to yell at people and I don't normally get to do that."

"Jack Pot Dice!"

Nicole Benzel's preschool-age daughter heard the chant and immediately ran up to play.

"She has a lot of fun with the games," Benzel said.

With most games costing just a quarter to play; face painting, balloons and popcorn at 50 cents; and cotton candy at a dollar; it was affordable fun for many families.

"We hope to win a cake," Benzel said as her daughter hustled off to the next game.

Junior Hannah Davis was running the fishing game. She had help earlier in the day, but during a shift change had to manage running the continuously popular game one handed.

It entailed handing the fishing pole over to young fishermen, while simultaneously clipping prizes onto the line behind a hand-painted screen that looked like a pond.

"You ready to go fishing? Davis asked 6-year-old Emily Smollen. "OK let's see what we get."

Davis ducked away quickly and asked Smollen if she could feel any tugging on her line.

When the tow-headed Smollen nodded, Davis prompted.

"It's a fish! Pull it out!"

Then with the same enthusiasm as though she'd won trinkets herself, Davis unclipped the fishing booty in amazement.

"What did you get? Stick-on earrings. A back scratcher. A fish and a sucker too?" Davis chimed.

"Thank you," Smollen responded as she turned all but the back scratcher over to relatives to hold.

Games such as the TP toss, return slantball, tiger tracks, the pop toss, ring toss, ski ball, cork guns and the glass pitch kept the school's lunchroom hopping.

"You just push it as hard as you can," 8-year-old Kolton Silva explained of how to roll pool table balls up a ramp to get maximum points in the game called six-alley pool.

Down the hall in the new gym, games like the basketball toss and Plinko were in full action.

Sand art, bingo, the sales of crafts and books and even haircuts were part of the action-packed activities run by students, families, faculty and alumni.

Central Catholic School Board President Jeannee Mueller busily sorted spoons from forks in the serving line in the main gym where a lunch of roast beef, chicken and hot dogs was served alongside a bake sale.

Karnival Kapers is one of Central Catholic's major fundraisers with proceeds used to assist the fine arts guild, athletic booster club, student scholarship program, student council and the development foundation.