Wildflower Festival a blooming success

Dear Crested Butte,

It seems like the whole town turns out to support the Wildflower Festival, and I am grateful to everyone who helped put on our 23rd festival.  I’d like to thank:

My hard working board: Abbie Berger, Pat Del Tredici, Kate Vogel, Cindy Haskell, Margaret Reavis, Maura Bailey, Krista Hildebrandt, Shar Fulton, Andrea Ouimet, and Jack Diani.  Each of you brings such wonderful energy and dedication.   Jenny Jeffery, Assistant Director…you are amazing!  Thank you for being so attentive and organized, for finding our incredible volunteers, always keeping your cool, and putting up with my senior moments! 

Our Registration Guru, Abbie Berger: you know where EVERYTHING  is, and you keep us all laughing!  Thank you for being so generous with your time and energy.  Our Treasurer, Kate Vogel:  you for “balancing” us every day!  Janet Martin, Kristen Lawrynk, Ingrid Murray, and Laura Martin-Cashiers Extraordinaire:  your smiles, good moods, and calm professionalism were so appreciated. 

Jack Diani for coordinating the garden tour, Cindy Haskell for a blooming boutique, Maura Bailey for putting on a really chillin’ Ice Cream Party, Alison MacAllister and Andrea Ouimet  for getting the poster up in Gunnison businesses, and Kathy Hooge for preparing our mailing lists so carefully.

Our friends for opening up their homes, gardens, and catering our events: Gary and Fran Rainwater, Keely Murphy with Arrangements Catering, Jerry and Joni Lund, Donna Walker, and Marcie Telander and Mark Schwiesow. 

Our wildflower guides for being so passionate about sharing their flower knowledge with others: Lou Beckman, John Kalny, Michelle English, Rosie Catmur, Lynn Jagaciewski, Lucy Hecker, Mel Harper, Barbara Kauffman, Jane Cofran, Dave and Carole Ebner, Carolyn Blanchard, Lucy Reynolds, Talie Morrison, Jalene Szuba, Charles Brunn, Claudette Sutton, Donna and Tom Walker, Pat Wallace, MJ Simmons, Maeve Nevins, Natalie Barefield, Jeanette Klepinger, and Jennifer Record.

The volunteers who kept registration running so smoothly: Joan Banker, Susan Reithel, Alfredo Villanueva, Imogene Bessett, Debra Reich, Nancy Seibert, Marla Drucker, Cynthia Peatross, Carole Ebner, Marj O’Reilly, Doris Altman, Ingrid Gebavi, Ruth Berkshire, Barbara Hay, Erika Vohman, Tom and Paula Steuer, Christy Yanko, Nicole Chanley, Jane and Lindsay Gould, and Amanda Stan.

The Town of CB and Keith Bauer, Executive Director of the Nordic Center, for allowing us the use of the Nordic Center, the Town of CB for making scholarships available to CB residents, Staci Lapi and Crested Butte Lodging for accommodating our visiting instructors, CB Rentals, Chris Larsen and Mountain Express, Tyler Newman and Sara Morgan at West Wall Lodge, Jeff Westling of Colorado Boarder, Xavi Fane, Simon and Will Jeffery, John and Karen Stock, Rick Divine, Elizabeth Bond and the Mountain Theatre, the Town of Mt. Crested Butte, Community Banks, Crested Butte News, Crested Butte Weekly, and Gunnison Times for the excellent coverage, and Jane Chaney and Beth Buehler of the Tourism Association.

Our workshop leaders who create such memorable experiences for our guests: Bob Anderson;  Ellen Osterling, Andrea Hedean, and Julia Brown of the Alpengardener; Nathan Bilow, Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Kathy Darrow, Dusty Demerson, Susan Evans, Xavi Fane, Rob Fillmore, Jacque Fisher, Fern Ford, Paul Gallaher, Eve Gilmore, Michael Grasseschi, Sherron Green and John Hess of the Crested Butte Land Trust; Mel Harte, Don Hempel, David Inouye, Bill Kastning and Paul Stucki of Alpine Express, Angie Kray, JC Leacock, Christina MacLeod, Monica Mesa and Yoga for the Peaceful;  Keely Murphy, Sue Navy of High Country Citizen’s Alliance, Marilyn Phillips, Linda Powers and Jim Masur;, Ben and Janae Pritchett of Colorado Backcountry, Gary Rainwater, Donna Robinson, Nancy Vogel, Jan Runge, Ruth Runge-Barnes, Dolly Schaub of Dolly’s Mountain Shuttle, Jayson Simon-Jones and the great staff at Crested Butte Mountain Guides, Annie Starr and Ian Billick of RMBL; Marcie Telander, Donna Walker, Sherrie York, and Andris Zobs of the Office for Resource Efficiency.  A special thank you to these leaders for their donation to the Festival: Krista Hildebrandt of the Alpengardener, Gay Austin of the Gunnison Ranger District, Julie Bremer, Glo Cunningham of the Crested Butte Museum, Beth Hanson; Sandy Snell-Dobert, Nick Meyers, and Ellen Petrick of the National Park Service, Jennifer Rose, Ruth Runge-Barnes, Kate Vogel, Rick Yegge with the Gunnison County Weed Program, and Sandra and Mike West.

David and Patti Miller for your very generous donation to the Festival. 

Lavada Bramlitt of Computer Simple for being our technical support.

And last but not least, to Mother Nature for giving us another spectacular wildflower season!

 

In gratitude!

Sue Wallace

Director, Crested Butte Wildflower Festival

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