Who Makes it All Happen? - The Volunteers

An event like Feria Maestros del Arte does not happen without an incredible amount of work. For four years, Marianne Carlson did everything herself, however, during the 4th Feria she realized the show would not move forward without recruiting some volunteers.

Having worked with volunteer organizations before, Marianne also realized she might get all kinds of people volunteering but not necessarily the "shakers and movers" she wanted and needed. Boy, was she wrong!

The first step was putting ads in the local Colony Reporter that a meeting was going to be held with recruiting volunteers as the goal. The day of the meeting, 18 people she had never met before walked through the door. Badly needed were coordinators who would take on a particular aspect of the Feria, do their jobs well thereby relieving some of the pressure from Marianne's Feria Coordinator position. And, that's exactly what she got. Twelve people volunteered to take on - Admissions, Set-Up and Take Down, Photography, the charity Raffle, creating the Feria brochure, Artist Transportation, Hosting, Marketing, Accounting and more. Other volunteers prefer to work for either a day or the 3 days of the event.

What a joy all these people were to work with! This incredible group doesn't bicker, there are no personal agendas entering into what must be done, and we all love to party together. The Feria just keeps getting better and better but could not happen without these volunteers.

Donna Williams

For information on hosting or volunteering during Feria Maestros del Arte, call Marianne Carlson at (376) 765-7485 or email mariannecarlson@gmail.com or call Donna Williams at (376) 765-5937 or email wms.donna@gmail.com.

(Our thanks to Karen Henderson for the use of her photographs)