A huge turn-out for the great RiverFest on Sunday, April 17, 2016. The festivities turned out to be even better than advertised, greater than promised. We had superb singers and contestants, a super MC with Storm Roberts, delicious food by Fred Fey & Company, and great desserts by volunteers, outstanding artwork and donations by donors and friends, and wonderful music by In the Moment and Terraplane.
Not to mention nice people showed up who enjoyed and appreciated what was presented on the beautiful day we all had. Lots of them, at rough count over three hundred.
Of course we had a brand new stage, just built for the occasion, strong, beautiful and functional, and which will be used for many things in the works at Rum 138, music, story-telling sessions, poetry readings and more, all to be announced in due course. Again, thanks to all the volunteers who put in the work to build it.
And that is what makes OSFR go, all the volunteers who pitch in willingly and take not a penny in return. Our active and generous board coupled with our mainstays Merrillee and Susan Giles, are the core of our energy engine,. But for events of the magnitude of the RiverFest, we have literally dozens of people who appear from all over, cities, villages, and out of the woods, coming to Rum 138 to make it all happen, and then coming back on Monday to help clean up.
And local sponsors who give willingly to help preserve our river and springs. The primary mission of OSFR is, of course, education regarding our water resources, and our RiverFest does that, and at the same time allowing us to celebrate the Santa Fe River, gift that we have in our community. A tangible manifestation of education at work is the dozen or so of new members who came out to the festivities, enjoyed the music and food, and found out about what OSFR does and why they exist, then decided they wanted to join us in our mission and be part of what we do. We welcome them all.
Also of importance is the fundraising that the RiverFest accomplishes. As a non-profit we have no salaried workers, but the fundraising of course allows us to function and exist. So our sponsors are important and honor us with management of their contributions. Again, we thank them all.
Congrats OSFR on a fantastic River Fest event. Congratulations to the winning song writer, John Stephens. Congratulations to the committee who built the new stage. Congrats on the successful fund raising. Perfect weather and lots of fun were enjoyed by all.