May 24th, a warm, breezy Sunday afternoon, perfect for a Party in the Park, the latest event in the Table of Contents series of benefits for the Andes Public Library. Young and old lined up to get tickets and pore over the choices of bookmarks–each with a Winnie the Pooh character and clever quote. Then to choose a flavor (or 2) of ice cream, Lazy Crazy Acres’ famous gelato, hand packed by Jake, the personable owner. And on to the all-you-can-eat bounty of baked goods under the tent. Kids ran up and down in the far reaches of the park. Their grownups sat on benches or blankets and talked, catching up with friends and making new ones. Small dogs tugged on leashes.
We have Mary Davis to thank for this delightful inspiration and its execution. She sponsored Lazy Crazy Acres on Kickstarter; they reciprocated with an offer of gelato for 100. The donations all benefit the library. A win-win-win-win for Andes!
Mary, generous in every way, wants to thank those who helped out: Volunteers like Fran Blackburn who made 4 dozen adorable cupcakes and Michael Mercurio, Donna Hollon, Katy Rosa, Judy Garrison and Joanne Callahan who supplied dozens of cookies and brownies. Jake and Karen of Lazy Crazy Acres whipped up six varieties of their rich “cow to cone” gelato, including their special honey gelato for Winnie the Pooh.
Set-up began with the arrival of Craig Blackburn with his tent. A team of volunteers including Michael Mercurio, Michael Suchorsky and Sally Davis were on hand to help set up the baked goods area, drive out to the Tremperskill store for ice and generally make themselves useful in a hundred different ways. Buffy Calvert set up the ticket booth and happily managed the ticket sales with her son, Jon, for the entire two plus hours. Judy Garrison and Karen Levey filled in the team at closing time with their help in making sure the park was left as we found it.
It takes a village to pull off a successful event and this was no exception. Our gratitude extends to Marty Donnelly for approving our venue request and following through with having the electricity turned on. Otherwise, the gelato would surely have turned to soup as the afternoon proved stunningly warm and beautiful. I guess we need to thank someone up high for that. ~