Our Festival Floats!!
Thank you!
Basking in the warm, drizzly afterglow of the 10th Annual Sustainable Ballard Festival, we are moved and supremely humbled by the monsoon of community spirit and support that poured forth at Ballard Commons Park last Sunday. The Festival is a huge group effort, and we couldn’t have done it without the 56 community-spirited exhibitors who hung in there and created cozy little clusters of tents and the 65 dedicated volunteers (ages 9-87!), who posted flyers, baked goodies, silk-screened t-shirts, put up tents, took down tents, and so much more—and did it all with a smile. Thanks a mil! And thanks, too, to the estimated 2,000 attendees who braved the wet (even for Seattle) weather and made the festival what it was: a fab, fun, inspiring, heart-warming, and totally unsinkable community-building event! What a great celebration of Sustainable Ballard’s 10th birthday . . . and what a shining testament to the buoyant Ballard community YOU help build every day.
Congrats to our Raffle winners!
Congratulations to Paula Jenson who won the RE-Store built Little Free Library™ that was on display at the Festival. And to Jill Golden who will receive a Sustainable Ballard built library.
Top Ten Volunteers:
This year’s festival was blessed with an abundance of hard-working, devoted and good-natured volunteers. We are so grateful for every one of the 65 folks who devoted an hour or 10, but we have to give special mention to a handful who went above and beyond:
Alina Neacy – Alina jumped in just a couple of weeks before the festival and totally took over our kids area and kids activities. She sorted through tons of supplies, planned and organized creative activities, got the area set up and trained and supported other volunteers. She also co-created a great display area for our Green Home exhibit. Then she was at the Festival all day helping out in those 2 areas.
Alisa Moreno – Alisa did not stop working all day. She was there bright and early to help check in exhibitors and help with set up; she then did a shift as a Green Team “mafioso” followed by a shift as a Greeter which was followed by a shift keeping the Taste of Ballard area orderly. Somehow in between she found time to help set-up the Learning Station at the library, ferry things to and fro, and, you guessed it, Alissa stayed to help take down and pack everything up at the end. What an amazing volunteer!
Amy Ravenholt – Amy described herself when she signed-up to volunteer as “a general laborer with a good back and a nice smile” and she was that and more! Amy was there to help put up tents Saturday in the torrential rain, then again Sunday early AM for set up (in the rain again) and coordinated the building of two exhibitor tent clusters. Throughout the day she made herself available for whatever was needed and was there to help take it all down at the end, still with a smile (and hopefully still a good back)!
Derek Bigelow – Derek has been organizing for our new Ballard Tool Library. When asked to create a Green Home display for the festival, he jumped on in with gusto and created a gorgeous display with 4 fun and educational activities for the Green Home booth. He then staffed the booth all day of the fest!
Howard Lamb – Howard initiated and made possible a great new addition to the Festival – the Taste of Ballard, featuring all Ballard brews and local food! There was a lot of outreach required and he managed it superbly. He also hung posters and helped us spread the word, recruited volunteers, and was on hand for set-up on that very wet Saturday and as a helpful floater all day on Sunday!
Jake Meulink – Jake joined the planning committee back in August and must have been to all but one of the MANY planning meetings. He worked on a homebrew station for the festival which we will definitely bring in next year, supported us with all kinds of creative ideas, and tabled for the festival at events in the community. He started early with set-up on Saturday, again on Sunday, poured beer all day Sunday and didn’t quit until breakdown was finished on Sunday. Thanks Jake!
John Munroe – John describes himself as the extension cord king. He was our festival electrician and we gave him a workout on Sunday! But John also designed and led a crew that built and painted a sturdy, semi-permanent Main Stage for us, so that now we have a snap-together modular system that will come in handy for years to come. John is an ongoing festival hero!
Rachelle Taylor – Rachelle is another new volunteer who jumped in feet first and offered to do anything that needed to be done. She coordinated a truckload of programming, hung a huge stack of posters, managed an exhibitor cluster on Sunday, did a stint facepainting in the kids tent and a stint patrolling in the beer garden. To top it all off she baked irresistibly tasty zucchini bread and coffee cakes for our Sunday set-up crew volunteers! She’s an all-around talented organizer and we are lucky to have her!
Robert Guercio – Robert is a new arrival in town and decided there’s no better way to meet Ballard’s coolest people than to jump in whole hog into our festival! With a go-get-em attitude and a smile, he participated in planning meetings, hung posters, and officially dedicated two weekends to us, in which he helped build the Main Stage, helped with set-up on that soggy Saturday, greeted visitors and stayed available for anything on Sunday and kept going until everything was put away on Sunday.
Susannah Hale – Susannah was our Merchandise Maven. She joined us just about 2 weeks before the festival and took control of all things t-shirt. Sorting all of our vintage and new shirts, making signs, getting us rolling with credit card transactions, decorating and then managing the Merch tent all day!
Our deep gratitude and appreciation to all of you!
Check out some of the great press we got this year!
What’s on this weekend?
Sustainable Ballard Festival to take over Ballard Commons Park tomorrow
Seattle Times: Picture This!
Ballard Weekend
Ballard Event includes Brunch
Sustainable Ballard’s 10th Annual Festival
Sustainable Ballard holds 10th Annual Festival
Ballard’s Taste of Ballard
Mind over Matters Sustainability Segment