Be a part of Anacortes' largest community event of the year, the 2009 Anacortes Arts Festival. Volunteers are the backbone of the Festival and ambassadors to our many out of town visitors. Mary Leone (staff) oversees the Volunteer function with help from experienced volunteer team leaders. Please consider experiencing the Festival through the eyes of a volunteer.

Download a Volunteer Profile Form (93k PDF file) or call our office at 360-293-6211 or send us an email: volunteer@anacortesartsfestival.com.

Benefits to Volunteers

• A wonderful sense of community
• A free Festival T-shirt for those who complete the orientation and 4 hours of service
• A volunteers-only Orientation and Reception
• Special training in your area of volunteering
• Special recognition for 5 or more years of service

Four Hour Shifts

• Booth Sitter: Relieve Booth Vendors allowing them to take a break.
• Information Booth: Provide directions and program information about the Festival (3+ years general Festival experience required).
• Docent/Art Cashier: Secure artwork in Port Warehouse, answers questions regarding artwork and write up art work sales.  Must have an arts background or a demonstrated interest in art.
  -- also see Art Docents.
• Distribution/Publicity: Pre-festival poster distribution, hang sponsor banners, help with Publicity.
• Exhibition Team: Art show set-up, take down.  Must have exhibition production or art handling experience.
• Booth Artisan Services: Help with Booth Artisan lunch preparation and maintain our Hospitality Room for those wishing to take a quiet break.
• Production: Provide physical set-up and take down of the Festival.  Some jobs require manual labor and construction knowledge.
• Office: Help with phones, mail outs, Booth Artisan Check-In and Check-Out (banking or accounting experience needed).
• Youth Activities: Help participating groups with youth area arts activities

 

Update from Mary

2008 was a great year for Volunteers! Pat Sterling's crew packed over 100 lunches a day in the Hospitality Services room with rave reviews from Booth Artisans. We discovered that in the past many artisans had never been able to get away from their booths long enough in to come to the lunchroom. These hand delivered sack lunches made it possible to have lunch. We hope to prepare lunches for all 250-booth artisans next year.

We had so many concerts Beverly Swanson had her hands full making sure ticket sales tables were manned and the money was accurately counted. A great job Bev!

The Beer Garden sold even more beer than ever! With the stage so close, beer and music were irresistible! Michele Bruce and crew handled it like pros.

Nancy Vogel and Lanny Bergner's Art Handling and Exhibition Set up team made the whole Art show come together easier and quicker than ever while Laura Hamilton and the Docents welcomed musicians and even greater crowds to the Port. New procedures helped speed up the People's Choice vote tallying. Thanks to the docents who attended the long training meeting prior to the Festival. Because of your patience, there were no mistakes in sales write-ups.

Booth Artisans' praise for our Booth Sitters seems endless. Many of you went above and beyond to help these hard working vendors get a rest.

Geralyn Curtis' Info Booth group handled both 6th and 10th street visitors with aplomb, selling buttons and t-shirts while providing answers to many, many questions.

As always Richard Mitlyng and Doug Dore managed the behind-the-scenes production crew so professionally, you barely knew they were there. They hung signs, set up stages, barriers, tables, canopies, vendors, entertainers and artists.

Office volunteers gave us support and relief with phones, large mailings and emergencies. And to our continual amazement, the Sunday night crew handled checkout in record time.

Thank-you, thank you from all of us involved in the Anacortes Arts Festival to each one of you who helped with the 2008 Festival.

We hope to see you again in 2009.

Mary Leone, Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteer of the Year

Congratulations to Don Bergner who was selected as the Volunteer of the Year for 2008. Don worked 49 hours helping install art at the Port, assisting with the Art Dash, selling tickets at the concerts, working at both Info Booths, serving as a Docent at the Port and cleaning up after the Festival. Don has volunteered for six years and is known for his construction expertise and cheerful attitude.

"I've never had a bad moment with the Festival, everybody is positive and happy, even the visitors," adding, "It is well organized and everybody works well together."

And Don should know. He volunteers a lot. He is a commissioner on the Anacortes Arts Commission managing their Arts-for-All programs, he is a life skills facilitator for the WSU extension Ideas for Living group and he volunteers with the Anacortes Police Auxiliary.

An Anacortes native, Don graduated from Seattle University with a degree in Civil Engineering, did a three-year stint with the Peace Corps in Micronesia before returning to a career in structural engineering with the US Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and San Francisco retiring in 2002.

Don came out of retirement in the spring of 2006 to work with the hurricane Katrina Debris Removal in New Orleans as a Hydraulic Engineer.

Heartfelt thanks to Don and all our volunteers who work so hard.