Editor,

I want to express my most sincere appreciation for the numerous volunteers who made the 2014 Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival a success.

The Coupeville Festival Association has promoted and hosted the annual Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival for 50 years.

The CFA is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization consisting of 25 standing committees and 250-plus volunteers. There is no paid staff.

All nonoperational proceeds go into the 98239 Coupeville area in the form of project grants and scholarships. In December 2013, those annual grants and scholarships totaled $774,000 for the past 50 years.

The CFA has partner agreements with various Coupeville organizations to help run various areas of the festival.

Those partners include: Pacific Northwest Art School — hosts of the juried art gallery in the Coupeville Recreation Hall, Coupeville Chamber of Commerce — operators of the beer and wine garden in front of the museum, the Coupeville Boys and Girls Club — providers of volunteers to run two parking lots, Coupeville High School History Day students, and Wilbur Purdue —  who managed trash and recycle pick up.

The Coupeville Lions Club helped with setup on Friday and Saturday morning and then tear-down and load-out on Sunday evening. The Coupeville Lions did the setup and tear-down of nine customer rest stations throughout the festival grounds. The U.S. Navy — who provided volunteers who helped at many areas of the festival throughout festival weekend.

This festival would not be possible without the continued support of individuals and sponsors from Coupeville.

Special thanks and appreciation go to: The City of Coupeville and its employees; Mark Mouw and tellers from People’s Bank (sponsor) for the Sunday evening check-out; Doug Kroon of Knead and Feed (sponsor); Eric Mitten, Windermere Real Estate (sponsor); Whidbey Telecom (sponsor); Walt Blackford at Puget Sound Energy (sponsor); Nathan Corey at Corey Oil; John Tharp at Sea-Tac Shuttle for the free shuttle buses between the parking lots; Derek Franzen from Central Electric, which kept the electricity running in the food court; Carol Moliter, Big Rock Designs, who managed all production and ads; Dawn Hesselgrave, Branch Business Services, who coordinated multiple committees’ printing needs; and Kimberly Hoctor of Handbag Consignment Shop, our marketing and social media chair.

The Coupeville festival is truly a community event. In some cases, there are third-generation volunteers who come “home” to Coupeville to help at the festival.

Other volunteers come from Island County communities, the mainland and even as far away as Texas.

I personally want to thank all of the committee chairs and their dedicated volunteer teams for their countless hours of work throughout the year that make this great event happen.

If I have not mentioned some person or organization, let me apologize now for the oversight.

To become a part of this wonderful organization, go to our website www.coupevillefestival.com

Mike Dessert
President, Coupeville Festival Association
Coupeville