Editor,

I want to express my most sincere appreciation for the numerous volunteers who made the 2015 Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival a success.

The Coupeville Festival Association has promoted and hosted the annual Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival for 51 years. The CFA is a nonprofit, all- volunteer organization consisting of 23 standing committees and 250-plus volunteers.

There are no paid staff. All non-operational proceeds go into the 98239 Coupeville area in the form of project grants and scholarships.

In December 2014 those annual grants and scholarships totaled $815,000.

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

Those partners include: Pacific Northwest Art School, which hosts the juried art gallery in the recreation hall; Coupeville Chamber of Commerce, which operates the beer and wine garden in front of the museum; Coupeville Boys and Girls Club, which provides volunteers to run two parking lots; Coupeville schools’ History Day students and Wilbur Purdue manage trash and recycle pick-up; Coupeville Lions Club, which helps set up Friday and Saturday mornings, then tear down and load out on Sunday evening; U.S. Navy provides volunteers who help in many areas of the festival throughout the weekend.

This festival would not be possible without the continued support of individuals and sponsors. Special thanks and appreciation go to: City of Coupeville and its employees; Mark Mouw and tellers from People’s Bank for Sunday evening check-out; Eric Mitten, Windermere Real Estate; Walt Blackford at Puget Sound Energy; Doug Kroon, Knead and Feed; Nathan Corey, Corey Oil; John Tharp, Sea-Tac Shuttle, for the free shuttle busses between the parking lots; Derek Franzen, Central Electric, which keeps electricity running in the food court; Carol Moliter, Big Rock Designs, manages all production and ads; Dawn Hesselgrave, Branch Business Services, coordinates multiple committee’s printing.

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 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.

Mike Dessert, president

Coupeville Festival Association