Parishioner creates step-by-step guide to planning a festival

Intermountain Catholic

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From left: Jody Bramble, Alicia Sanchez and Anne Kurek prepare for the 13th Annual Folkfest at Saint Joseph the Worker Parish in West Jordan. This will be the first ?green' Folkfest where recycling will be a priority.

WEST JORDAN – Anita Sanchez has organized a “festival in a bag,” a how-to booklet on chairing the annual Folkfest at Saint Joseph the Worker Parish.

“Anita has created a Folkfest Bible,” said Anne Kurek, St. Joseph the Worker Parish secretary. “It’s a loose-leaf notebook with about 64 chapters that covers every angle of the festival from the kitchen, to the sound system, car show, finance, field layout, publicity, even the garbage. Alicia jokes that she opens up the book and out pops a festival.”

Sanchez carries a working copy of the booklet in a bag. She started putting the book together two years ago, she said; it evolved from keeping records of things such as where they got the ice, the extra tables and who has helped throughout the years.

“Before we moved from Seattle to Utah, my job dictated that I put events together,” said Sanchez, a member of St. Joseph the Worker Parish since 2000. “I had put together luncheons for 250 people, and I was involved with Easter egg hunts, Christmas parties, annual craft shows, and learned how to put events together.”

When Sanchez became a member of St. Joseph the Worker Parish, she attended the women’s council meetings and volunteered to cook the senior dinner. She didn’t think it would be a big task to cook for 100 people because the kitchen facilities were available. That led Father Patrick Carley, pastor, to volunteer her to be chairwoman of the Mexican food booth for the Folkfest.

In 2006, she began being to organize the Folkfest with fellow parishioner Ron White. “He did the manual things on the grounds and I kept the records,” she said. “In years past, I had been in the kitchen, which seemed to be the focal point of the festival; where everyone who helped would come through asking, ‘Where is this,’ ‘How do we do that?’

The book came about because she and her husband plan to return to Seattle and she also thought if anything ever happened to one of the chairperson there would be a book to follow. “I thought the best way to do that would be to create the Folkfest Bible; that way someone can just step in and know what to do and who to call,” she said. “The book has all of the information on what we have done over the years. What I find in the Church community is there are so many people who want to help, but it is hard to find someone who wants to be in charge. It’s just a matter of understanding all the aspects and coordinating the festival because there are committee chair people who handle the various items. It’s easy, but it’s time consuming.”

This year will be the 13th annual Folkfest, Kurek said and Sanchez has made the festival what it is today. “It takes a great deal of coordination and cooperation from parishioners, and Alicia is so organized, so calm and level headed no matter what is going on,” said Kurek. “She works on this for months and has graciously done this year after year. If it seems like something hasn’t worked the way we thought it would, she records that and we don’t do it the next year.”

Sanchez said she is still collecting information to further complete the book and will update it again this year.

“One thing we will add is that our Folkfest will be ‘green’ this year,” said Kurek. “Our green team is making a concerted effort to make sure everything that can be recycled is recycled.”