Appreciation banquet held for Oktoberfest volunteers

Oktoberfest USA donated $55,000 to help volunteer groups

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — It took an army of volunteers to put on this year’s Oktoberfest celebration, and Sunday they were thanked for their hard work.

Oktoberfest USA held an appreciation banquet Sunday. About 57 parent groups, community groups, and businesses donated their time and skill to put on Oktoberfest.

The banquet is an annual event, but as an extra thank you Oktoberfest donated a total of $55,000 back to those groups.

“We’ve always given back to these community service groups that have come and helped us but we wanted to formalize it a little bit more this year, being able to really show everybody, hey, 57 plus service groups that came out to help, paying them back, donating back to them for everything they’ve done for us,” said La Crosse Festivals President Douglas Kratt.

And there is no rest for Oktoberfest organizers as they have already started meeting to plan for next year’s celebration.