Editor,

The 2016 Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival is now but a sweet and successful memory. Tents that went up are now down, trash cans and recycle bins have been taken away, the Town Green restored from its much needed parking lot to Saturday’s Farmer’s Market — with everything stored to be at the ready for next year’s festival.

It takes an army to set up and take down the festival and we are forever grateful for the Heart of the Festival, our volunteers.

Two hundred volunteers spent 1745 hours making this year’s festival a positive experience for our 180 vendors and the throngs of visitors that shopped our vendors and town merchants. Without our volunteers, we would not have a festival, and thousands of dollars in grants and scholarships would not be available to our town and our high school students.

Thank you are two small words are all that I have to convey our huge, heartfelt appreciation to all our volunteers for working through the hottest weekend I can remember, making the festival a positive experience for all. They came from many places and organizations: Soroptimist Int’l of Coupeville, Coupeville Lions, Whidbey Health Medical Center, Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, CHS National Honor Society Students, CHS History Day Students, CHS Drama Students, and residents of Central Whidbey Island. Each one of you made a huge, positive impact for the 2016 Coupeville Arts & Crafts Festival!

Kathy Sechrist

Deb O’Brien

Volunteer Coordinators

Coupeville Festival Association