yeah it's sweet pea time!!!!!!

[briannell]

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle—Bozeman, MT


By BETH SLOVIC, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Something akin to wedding-day jitters has taken ahold of volunteers with the Sweet Pea Festival.

On Thursday, a few hours before the 28th annual extravaganza descended on Lindley Park, volunteers were excitedly seeing to last-minute preparations.

They were building stages, setting up food tents and marking traffic paths at the park, all in nervous anticipation of the arrival of nearly 20,000 festival-goers today, Saturday and Sunday.

"The weekend part rolls smoothly for me," Wendy Tage, a festival board member, said. "It's the preparation that's hard."

Those preparations began -- as they do every year -- in November, said JoAnn Brekhus, executive director of the Sweet Pea Festival.

It takes almost 10 months, 50 board members and 2,000 volunteers to steer the event, Brekhus said.

Behind the scenes, however, the effort is even bigger than those numbers indicate.

For every volunteer who takes time off from work to set up tables, put up signs and sell buttons for the festival, there are countless others who sacrifice their time and money to support their work, Brekhus said.

Out-of-state grandparents fly to Bozeman to babysit the children of volunteers, bosses let their employees take time off and spouses run their households without extra help.

Because of all these hidden contributions, adding up the number of hours people donate to making Sweet Pea a success is impossible.

But that doesn't stop people from quietly and sometimes thanklessly plugging away on behalf of the festival.

Karen and Herman Chan, owners of The Wok, are supplying the teriyaki chicken skewers at the food booth run by Rocky Mountain Hemophilia and Bleeding Disorders Association.

Slicing, skewering and freezing 2,700 pieces of the chicken appetizers took several employees at The Wok an entire month, Karen Chan said.

Richard Smith said he and his wife Chelsea, who runs the nonprofit Arts Centered Education Society, together contributed at least 100 hours of work to Sweet Pea. ACES will be selling fruit smoothies at the festival, he said.

In preparation for the big weekend, the couple did everything from shopping for ingredients to attending a mandatory health department orientation about food safety guidelines.

Brekhus would like festival-goers to be kind to the volunteers at the event since they are responsible for it.

"Please take the time to encourage and thank the volunteers," Brekhus said.

The community's support is crucial, she said. "That's why Sweet Pea exists."