Hats off to the Dept. of Agriculture & Jim Houghton Enterprises.

After many months of searching for carnivals in my area, I was directed to the Dept. of Agriculture for information on how to chose the right group. I was given a list of names at that time.

I sent out several emails in hope that I would find a company. I received an email & phone call from Houghton Enterprises at which time I was told they were available the following week. Everything sounded great, so we didn't hesitate. It turned out to be the best decision we've ever made.

The people from Houghton Enterprises are very thorough & professional. They inspect all equipment daily, watch over the entire carnival from A to Z and are the friendliest & most down to earth group of people I ever met.

In the small Borough of Trainer there hasn't been a carnival in over 50 years. But I can attest that after our experience with Houghton Enterprises, this will now be an annual event with only them. It was great to see the smiles & excitement in the kids faces. Not only did everyone have a fantastic time, but we also got to work with a great group of people we now call friends.

Thanks guys, you helped bring a small town to life !

Sincerely,

Dawn Martinez
Trainer Borough
Recreation Board
President
267-300-2204

I'm writing on behalf of St. Rocco Church regarding my experience with Houghton Enterprises.

Although I hate to admit it at times, I'm a very skeptical person. "Seeing is Believing", "The Proof is in the Pudding", etc. etc. Those are the mottos I seem to live by. Father always says it's hard to embrace something new or changes in life. So when we were first approached by Jim Houghton, we didn't give the idea of a church carnival too much thought. It was just not something we'd considered nor something we had time to plan. We were then contacted via e-mail by Sara. At that point, we gave it a "valiant" effort. I took the idea to our fundraising committee. Our committee didn't show enthusiasm in the idea of a carnival and immediately wondered how much work it would take in their part. The idea was almost immediately shot down. I returned with the "No" answer to Sara. She came back with all of the reasons as to why this would be a "win-win" situation beginning with how we wouldn't need to do a thing and that they would take care of it all. What? I couldn't believe it and Sara’s persistence would soon pay off. Father and I finally agreed to meet with Jim Houghton just to see if this was all true. But before that, I needed to check on some references (again, a non-believer). Of all of the references I received, they all had the same positive responses about their experiences. OK, I thought, we’ll give it a shot. So Father and I met up with Jim. It just seemed too easy, but it proved to be just that. Our community is mainly made up of families in which both parents work and in many of them, 5-6 days a week. There's no way we'd have the volunteers to help us work at our carnival. In the end, we didn't even need them for a successful carnival. We set up with Jim the week to have the carnival and got a carnival permit approved by our township. That's it. Nothing else was required by us and we basically sat back and let Houghton Enterprises do their thing. We were VERY nervous, but allowed them to do what they'd promised. We had great weather, a great turnout, and proceeds over 4 times what we'd expected or even hoped to get. Unbelievable! Mind you, we probably could’ve done better with more community cooperation, but this was our first carnival and we chose to sit back and see how it worked first before thinking of any future possibilities. In regards to the employees, they were all very nice, respectful, and hard working. The entire organization is like a well oiled machine. And as for the Houghton family and Sara Cunningham, I'm proud to not only have worked with them, but to become the friends that I consider them now to be. I've followed their whereabouts throughout the summer and have visited them at other festivals. I keep in close contact with Sara and hope to meet with them again soon to begin the organizing of our carnival next year. I will continue to be skeptical about things in life, but in regards to a carnival and Houghton Enterprises, I'm now a believer and will continue to support them as they have us. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at (610) 268-3365. Thank you and many blessings.

Cynthia C. DeStafney
St. Rocco Church
Business Manager

Jim Houghton Enterprise will continue to be the carnival provider for Morgantown Community Church!! Our church made a last minute decision to have a carnival as a fundraiser for our building expansion fund. We were put in touch with Jim through one of our church partners. It was a decision we will never regret!! We gave Jim a 2 month notice that we wanted to do this and we were lucky enough that he had 1 opening left for the season. Jim Sr. met with us and worked out an area where they could put everything. He told us to call or e-mail with any questions we may have leading up to the "Big Date". Let me tell you I used that advice to my total benefit!! I called at least every 2 days (several times on some of those days) and e-mailed. I got a return call every time and had an answer to my email within the hour but 95% of the time within minutes!!! They answered all of my questions with clarity every time. Myself and a few of our church members went to the local fireman's carnival that Houghton Enterprises was doing in Cochranville to see how things ran. We walked around for a while and we were very impressed at the professional staff that Jim had working for him. It was also easy to identify the staff as they were all in company shirts. When it came time for our carnival we could not have been happier with how things were dealt with. Everything ran smooth and it was a great success. We had great feedback from the community as to how great a carnival this was. Jim Houghton's business can accommodate any size carnival also. We were a smaller size carnival but they behaved as if we were their biggest customer. We will continue to Jim Houghton Enterprise for years to come!!

Sincerely,
Theresa Crow
Morgantown Community Church