"A Gluten-Free Fair" Volunteers In Action

WOW! What an amazing turnout we had for our FIRST "A Gluten-Free Fair" located in Benicia, CA on October 10th, 2010.

This fair was a success (or so that's what we've been hearing on our Facebook fan page) because of the willingness and 110% giving nature of our wonderful volunteers! 

Our amazing setup crew, didn't just setup - they made things happen and fast! George Brown, crew lead and all around handy man, was the first to arrive at The Inn and Spa at Benicia Bay. Shortly after Blake Wolcott rounded the corner ready to help move tables. Within a few minutes after Blake showed up, Daniel Banuelos, Felipe Banuelos, and Gloria Banuelos all arrived ready to help get the sound equipment donated by Enhanced Lighting and Sound unloaded and setup. Daniel quickly noticed an unloading issue from our rented Uhaul and switched hats to help unload the THIRTY-FIVE donated tables with Blake, Felipe, and George. This job immediately went much faster when Bob Estrella and his son arrived ready to move not only tables, but the HUGE amount of boxes that were also piled in the Uhaul. By the way, 23 of our tables were donated by Mary Ann and Harper Lowe (borrowed from the Napa Airport), 3 of our tables were borrowed from our neighbors Gerald and Wendy, along with 1 table from Bryan and Megan, and 2 tables from Chris and Ginny, plus 2 tables from George Brown. The Inn also allowed us to use about 7 of their tables, so we shockingly had more tables than we had originally thought.

Kathy Dillon joined the crew and jumped into helping with many tasks, including getting the chairs setup with Gloria and crew. Viki Brookover brought her son Clark and his girlfriend Sarai - all of whom were a wonderful asset to the team. Good for us that Viki was a pro-balloon inflater! She's responsible for getting helium in all the balloons placed around the Inn. In fact, Viki wore MANY hats, including taking over the O'Doughs table along with Clark and Sarai. 

Linda Reiff also showed up early and was ready to get this fair going! She helped with decorations, setup, goodie bag boxes, vendor checkin, vendor table assignments, cleanup, and so many more things I know I am not even aware of.. this girl was on FIRE! We're so lucky to have such a passionate member of Solano County Celiacs. Thank you Linda for also making a Starbucks run for our volunteers -- that was SO appreciated! 

Joann Mitchell deserves more than a little blurb in a blog. She deserves an entire blog devoted to her accomplishments as a mom and as a leader. She not only helped with the logistics leading up to the Fair with vendors and the Silent Auction, but she also preformed MANY tasks the day of A Gluten-Free Fair. I saw her tackling the Silent Auction table, Udi's absentee table, the vendor coordinating, and several other volunteering tasks that I'm sure I am not even aware of. She also brought Autumn Mitchell, Miss Go2Girl Assistant Coordinator to help with a multitude of things. Autumn was extremely helpful.. especially when it came to the bee traps! Actually Autumn did a wonderful job of helping with the Pastariso table and tackling many misc tasks throughout the day. Michael Mitchell was the ambassador for Udi's, showcasing their amazing breads and lookin' like he was having fun doing it! 

Despite food poisoning and feeling less than 100%, Kimberly Lenz (themissingmenu.com) still managed to lead with 100% efficiency. Her ability to multitask and direct vendors to their tables, while also tackling many additional tasks was greatly appreciated and truly amazing! I know she was involved in many tasks, several I'm sure I wasn't aware of. It's wonderful that she was willing to volunteer, considering the launch of her new business. The Missing Menu is already becoming a huge resource for gluten-free diners around the United States. 

While Daniel, Felipe, and Blake all got the sound system hooked up Cooky Longo and Margaret Fearey Walsh both showed up 100% ready to go! Cooky helped with vendors, while Margaret worked with chair placements and decorating. Margaret also took over the task of absentee volunteer for Nana's Cookie Company! 

I'm just amazed at how much Daniel and Blake did for our fair. When we had electrical issues, both guys were there rolling around on the ground, crawling through plants, getting poked by trees, listening to concerned vendors, and doing it all with a positive attitude! Blake even had to run to get ice for our guests, then he had to setup bee traps, and helped with about 5,000 other things I can't even think of. Blake doesn't even have Celiac and currently I am the only one he knows with the disease. Thankfully his wife was kind enough to let us borrow him for the WHOLE day. 

Vic and Hallie Dolcourt showed up bright and early to setup their two absentee tables. Vic demoed product for Bakery On Main, while Hallie demoed product for O'Doughs. Both Vic and Hallie efficiently demonstrated the product as well as provided emailed descriptions after the fair as to the success of each company's various gluten-free samples. 

Joanne Torre, Ina Block, and Mary Ann Lowe all showed up with bells on! We were so lucky to have these ladies here to assist with a variety of tasks. Joanne helped tackle the front entrance goodie bag/hand stamping table. Ina was our wonderful bread baker for Breads From Anna and Mary Ann Lowe gave Lisanatti the spotlight in the left courtyard. 

Joanne battled through boxes of goodie bags with Elizabeth Piper, Linda Reiff, and Sirenia Perez as the line continued to grow and the guests kept coming... and coming... and coming. We're so lucky these girls were at the front to help keep the line moving and help us get a general idea of how many people were coming in. It may have seemed silly to have hand stamping for a free event; however, we wanted to prevent people from coming and going and taking too many goodie bags. Our goal was to make sure each person at least got some form of goodie bag at A Gluten-Free Fair. Towards the middle to end of the fair, the goodie bag distribution team needed a break, so Elizabeth and Joanne took a much needed rest while Robert Hallam Walker stepped in and took on the job! 

Volunteer baker Rosemary Estrella made Namaste's product and sampled it out to our multitude of guests! Not an easy task, especially when the sun kept shifting positions and shining on all of our vendors and volunteers heads. 

Sirenia and Marianna Perez both arrived before the crowds showed up, their help was greatly appreciated in the Camp Celiac booth, as well as Marianna's assistance with the Pastariso table.

Joe Lewis arrived with camera in hand and two wonderful assistants. I'm not sure who did more of the photography, Joe or his two boys, but the results are just phenomenal! 

Our raffle would NOT have been possible without our raffle girl, Heather Hampton! Heather stood for a couple hours with box and money bag in hand, yelling out "Raffle, get your raffle tickets!!" Her persistence paid off and all proceeds went to the Celiac Disease Foundation! 

Jessica Engle and Mike Engle (the owners of The Inn and Spa) kicked it into overdrive when the guests started swarming! Jessica made sure everyone had water who came into Vino Paladini and Mike ran from room to outside to inside making sure a variety of tasks were taken care of. 

People started lining up around 12:45pm.. ready and waiting for A Gluten-Free Fair to start. After a quick visit to the Left Courtyard, I was shocked to find the line size had doubled in front of the Right Courtyard within a matter of minutes! Pretty soon the expression on all of the volunteers and vendors faces went from calm to complete shock! Our gluten-free guests had arrived and were ready to eat! 

Thank you to Katt for being our face painter! Her beautiful butterflies could be seen on faces running around the fair! 

Once the guests arrived, everything went by in one huge blur. Our raffle benefiting the Celiac Disease Foundation was a success, along with the Camp Celiac Silent Auction! According to Elaine Taylor, "this has been the best fair I have ever been to, and I've been to A LOT!" Overall the feedback was positive and before we knew it, cleanup time had arrived! 

Pamela Walton and Jennifer Iscol at the Celiac Disease Foundation/North Bay Celiacs table got quite a workout distributing material on Celiac Disease and selling Team Gluten-Free and North Bay Celiacs shirts. 

As the fair came to an end, we were all ecstatic and exhausted! Linda Reiff and her husband John could be seen cleaning up the tail end of garbage and various odds and ends. Joann, Michael, and Autumn Mitchell were grabbing various items to help with cleanup. Tablecloths were flying, chairs were being folded, and trash was being tossed. Jessica Stoner and Carl Chalmers came and helped tear down the remaining items (sound system, tables, etc). Daniel, Blake, and George despite being absolutely exhausted still managed to assist with striking the rest of the stuff at the fair. Jessica and myself had the lovely job of flattening boxes and throwing them in the trash.. which resulted in a not-so-pleasant encounter with flies and some unidentified liquid.. Needless to say: ewwwww... 

As the sun set and my back and feet screamed in agony, I couldn't help but think how inspiring it was to have so many people involved. All of these individuals took time out of their schedules, some with Celiac and some without, to make this event a success. They didn't complain, they just did. I sincerely hope this can be echoed in our future events and I am doing everything in my power to have these same wonderful and dedicated volunteers return for our future events. 

It was hard for me to keep track of everyone who volunteered the day-of, so if you don't see your name in this recap, please feel free to email me! I know there were several individuals in the Camp Celiac gazebo, unfortunately I didn't get all of their names due to the hustle and bustle of the fair. 

Here's to next year and here's to all of YOU!

With sincere gratitude,

Crystal Brown, President

Solano County Celiacs