10/29/2017
A Big Thank You to everyone who came out yesterday and made our First ever Harvest Festival a success! It was such a thrill to see all the smiling happy faces of kids and their families!
A big thank you to our Sponsors: the Kelso Senior Center Association, GNC (and Jeremy Cunningham), US Cellular (and Brandon Darby), Smiles Dental and Orthodontics (and Nicole Pype), Elfin Services and Highlander Place (and Jennifer and Becca), Nicole Penney with Damsel in Defense, Tash Hilsenhoff with H20 at Home. Without our sponsor's support the event would not have been as wonderful as it was! It was through their financial backing that we were able to provide the games, candy, and chili dinner.
A very big thank you to Sandra Mohler who owns Yoodoo Selfies. If you were there yesterday and saw the line for the selfie booth, then you know how exciting her participation was!
I also want to thank the Kelso Rotary Club and the Kelso Kiwanis - both of these wonderful organizations donated money and tents for more candy for the kids and tents for our vendors outside. Also thank you to Kelso Rotary President Marilyn for donating her own personal canopy tent!
Thank you to our supporters, hopefully those of you there stopped and spoke with them and will keep them in mind when looking for community groups to work with - CASA, SHIBA, and NAMI. These groups are always looking for volunteers to help them provide support to people in need here in Cowlitz County!
I want to be sure to thank Puneet Bawa and Tammy Spencer from JJ Williams Trucking for donating a wonderful 10 x 20 tent and two 10 x 10 tents. As well as Patrick Ryan from Stone Soup for his tent!
Thank you to Ronni Anrys-Herz for the beautiful and professionally decorated cake for the raffle.
A big thank you to our vendors: Ashley Larson, Rodney Smith, Robert Stowe, Ernest and Lyle Buck, Becky Kinder, Kellyanne Steuer, and Tammy Troyse! Thank you all for being great vendors and for your participation in the scavenger hunt! The kids loved it! You made their day! Thank you to those of you who brought extra tents for the folks outside and those who brought your own tents. The way you all pulled together to pull this event off was inspiring!
Thank you to Chris Bornstedt for taking over coordinating the chili competition. I know it was a bit rough this year, but Chris is the only reason it happened at all. Next year we will be working with him and Kevin Hunter to make sure that the competition is bigger, better and a more included part of our event. I also want to thank State Representative Jim Walsh, Kevin Hunter and the mystery lady who served as Judges for our competition yesterday! You guys are awesome!
Thank you to the ARRRR Pirates! The kids absolutely loved seeing you guys - Jeff McAllister, Lisa Knight Alexander, Councilman Larry Alexander and anyone else I missed. Your love for your community absolutely shined yesterday and I appreciated your support so much!
A big thank you to Councilman Jim Hill for helping to smooth the way with the city.
I want to also be sure I thank all my other volunteers and supporters - Sandy Ramsey who worked tirelessly both Friday night to help us decorate and Saturday cooking all the chili and cornbread, Ernest Buck who patiently read and replied to pages and pages of emails and helped me shape the event into what it was, Christie Maher who spent hours helping to decorate cakes and cupcakes for the raffle, my brother and sister-in-law Robert and Sheena Sutton for helping to pull everything together and helping where needed, Clark and Laura Carroll for manning the raffle table and the Treasure Hunt game, and Kimberly Sutton for holding down the fort at the front desk.
Jasmine, Marc and Zoe... thank you for all your hard work! It was such fun to see "kids" getting such enjoyment out of putting on an event for even littler kids! I hope that this event inspires all three of you to go out and seek ways to be involved in the community. Please know you can always shoot me your ideas and I will do what I can to help you pull them off!
Thank you Rob Mallis, Craig Sullivan and Don Talley - your kindness, support and willingness to always help when asked is a vibrant and living example of masonic wages being the wages of love. I was told once by a good man that I would never regret my husband becoming a mason because of the type of man he would become, and I have never regretted nor resented his time spent with you because I know when he is with you he is always in the company of good men who work together with him to become better.
I also want to take a moment to personally thank the people that worked tirelessly with me to pull this event off - beginning with my husband Craig Smith and my mother Camela Sutton. Without them and their support this idea would have gone nowhere and lastly my father, Jim Sutton, who continues to work tirelessly wherever and whenever needed because his family is his number one priority.
Thank you to each and every one of you. You made this first year a beautiful experience. Next year we will grow and expand and improve!
Sincerely,
Katie Sutton
