It has been 74 years since the Rolla Lions Club was formed and started hosting its annual Rolla Lions Club Carnival.

“We had a carnival on Year One, and it has been going on ever since,”  said Ted Atwell, a member of the Rolla Lions Club Carnival Committee.

When a festival has lasted as long as the Lions Club Carnival, it starts to accumulate regular attractions.

Bumper cars, food, games for the kids; all mainstays of the Carnival will be available this week when the Lions Club Park is turned into a virtual amusement park.

However, there are some things about the Carnival people may not be aware.

The color wheel, a staple of the Carnival, gives out more prizes than any other game.

“I can remember giving away seven prizes on one spin once,” Atwell said.

Something else that might not be obvious, the Carnival is so readily identifiable with the Rolla Lions Club runs with the help of about 200 volunteers.

“We could not do this Carnival without the volunteers, it takes hundreds of people to put this on,” Atwell said.

Volunteers can come from anywhere. Service organizations, as well individuals, can volunteer and be assigned to help out at food stands, games or with the parking.

And some groups have taken over Carnival stands as their own.

The Rolla Lioness Club has been running the funnel cake stand for 15 years. The funnel cake is so good, several years ago the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ranked it as one of the best in the state.

“The oil has to be the right temperature and the dough has to be just right,” Carol Bennett, the county clerk and a Rolla Lioness member who helped run the stand for several years, said.

Jenifer Smith, who will be running the stand this year, has a slightly different take on why the funnel cake has become a popular hit.

“Probably because it is at the Carnival, and you can only get it once a year,” Smith said.
Smith, although not downplaying the deliciousness of the funnel cake, gave some advice to would-be Carnival participants: Try the fried Oreo.

“It is even better than the funnel cake,” Smith said.

Residents will have their chance to discover some of the things they might have known when the Carnival opens, at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday.