2012 – Hannah Boaz was the winner of the 2012 James Whitcomb Riley Festival Community Service Award. Tom Billings is the Board of Directors President and Debbie Pfeiffer is the General Chairman. The theme for the year is “The Bear Story”.
In July the Community Foundation held a Match Day. The Festival donated $400.00 to each of the 11 groups for a total of $4,400.00.
Our website was up-dated with a new look and some new features. One feature allows people on the website to contact us directly. It was been very popular. Our logo also has a new look.
The Riley Festival was asked by Main Street to take over the Greenfield Christmas Festival and the Parade of Lights. It was decided to try it and committees were formed. The theme will be “A Holly Jolly Christmas”.
This year instead of mailing out confirmation packets to all of our vendors, it was decided that we would send their confirmation by e-mail. Then when they check in on set-up day they will pick up their packets of information. This saved a lot of money for postage and was well liked by the vendors.
Allie Dickmann was selected to be the 2012 Riley Festival Queen. Little Miss Riley was Addysen Cruz and Little Mr. Riley was Nathan Sticka.
We added 13 additional spaces on East Main in front of the Sheriff’s Department.
This year we gave out 10 grants to schools as part of the Education Arts Partnership Grant.
We had a couple of other big changes for the year. Tom Billings was given permission from the County Commissioners to use the Courthouse Annex. The Photograph Contest was set-up in the hall ways on the first floor, while the Commissioners Court Room was used for the Home Arts and Quilt Show. Both of these changes received a lot of positive comments from everyone. The other change was moving the Fine Arts Show to the Creative Arts Center. This too received many positive comments. Everything was downtown and was handicap accessible.
Tom Billings also received permission from Mayor Pasco to use the City Hall for our downtown office. The biggest news was the installation of the new sound system that covered the entire Festival area. We could make announcements that were heard by everyone.
Next year we will continue to use the Courthouse Annex, the Creative Arts Center and City Hall.
The JW Riley Breakfast was very well attended with approximately 120 people. Lori Borgman, a newspaper columnist, author and speaker, was our featured speaker for the event.
