Dear UHUH Fest Committee, Volunteers and Supporters,
This past weekend’s 2nd Annual University Heights Urban Harvest Festival was AMAZING! Thanks to our incredible collaboration and hard work, we created a community event to remember. There were a few days there that worried me; I thought we might just be rained out. We were so fortunate to get a break during this much needed rain storm to hold our event, without compromises. We at least quadrupled last year’s event in activities and attendance. We now have a great foundation for a new University Heights tradition for the entire community. A significant amount of volunteer power made this event a success. I believe at least 100 individual volunteers made this event possible! Thank you for all your time and effort. In addition, some volunteers went above and beyond to make this event a reality.
Thank you to…
Skip Howard and Alex Munoz, for making the trebuchet a reality; you worked countless hours designing and constructing this engineering marvel; Tulip Howard, Elizabeth Austin, and Ari Honarvar for curating an amazing array of vendors to satisfy all of our sensory appetites;
Karin Claisse and Lyn Patterson for bringing our community’s local non-profits to the Birney family, Sadia Najmi and Betsy Carter, for creating a wonderful array of activities that had kids enraptured for hours; Sara Werner for coordinating all of the volunteer efforts that made this event run smoothly; Laura Dadmun and Tom O’Malley, for organizing the field and reorganizing the field, and reorganizing the field towards a great layout; Aryn Famiglietti, Sarah McLure, and Nikki Bergstrom for doing such a great publicity push and drawing over 500 people to the event!; Samantha Boice, for graphics and printing; Molly McJohn and all the fabulous Birney bakers, for amassing an amazing array of baked goods which fueled the cake walk for hours and hours; The University Heights Community Association for helping us make this a community wide event rather than a school event.
Now, some very, very, special thank yous:
Thank you Mindy Swanson and Mickey McQuerry for running our school’s award winning eco-garden program. This incredible community asset is what makes this event possible. Mickey promises me that he can handle triple the volume of pumpkins next year! A ton of thanks to Beth Deig for keeping us organized and for basically co-chairing this event! And, lastly thank you, Amanda Hammond-Williams, our esteemed Principal, for making an incredible IB World School that the entire community can be proud of.
Again, I cannot thank everyone enough for all their support, and I truly hope that you will all be a part of the 2015 UHUH Festival. Please send Beth and me any ideas or thoughts you have regarding this year’s event so that we can keep them in mind when we start next year’s event planning.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Ayala
2014 UHUH Fest Committee Chair and FOABE President
This event was also made possible by these participants and sponsors:
- aChocalypse
- Andrew McGinnis, Farmers Insurance Group
- Archer Studios
- artFORM
- Bella Vie Candles
- Bullseye
- Classics 4 Kids
- Currywurst
- Doggus
- Farm Fresh to You
- Fresh Spun
- Fusion Glass Company
- High Rise Kids
- Jackie’s Jams
- Karlyn Woodcock
- Kelci Gilley’s daughter
- Kris Purnell
- Life Within Center in Hillcrest
- Lowe’s
- MetLife
- Mission Federal Credit Union
- MTS
- Olmeca Roots
- Perky Beans
- Roger!
- Roosevelt Middle School
- San Diego Stage and Lighting
- Sarah Kerr
- Shelters of Stone
- Slow Food Urban
- Specialty Produce
- The San Diego LGBT Community Centers
- University Heights Community Association
- University Heights Library
- YMCA Mission Valley