REMEMBERING BOB WILSON

A Memorial Service for Bob Wilson, our long time Children's Festival friend who passed away in December was held in Talent, Oregon , On January 26, 2014.

Bob was a regular performer and wandering minstrel with his guitar playing -partner entertaining our festival goers with his violin. He called it "fiddling around". The duo played folk music and reels.    Bob, a classical violinist played the viola with the Rogue Valley Symphony for many years. His day job was as Head Librarian of Ashland's   Jackson County Library.  

Bob's wife, Claire-Barr-Wilson, a professional artist/sculptor, is the creator of our very own popular Rosabelle dragon and our newest addition the baby dragon recycling container.

A NEW QUEEN IS SELECTED FOR 2013

             Queen Cindy Braden

The 2013 Children's Festival has selected 

Cindy Braden as Festival Queen for 2013-2014.   Queen Cindy will reign over all festivities leading up to and during the 47th Annual Children's Festival beginning with The Rogue River Rooster Crow Parade on June 20th.   She will also appear in 4th of July parades in Eagle Point  and  Central Point, Oregon.   Queen Cindy has been involved in The Children's Festival and Storytelling Guild for the past 8 years.  Cindy was Co-Director of the festival in 2010. 

SUE BATES HAS PASSED AWAY

Sue Bates, one of the original Children's Festival five passed away on May 2, 2013 from complications of A.L.S.

Sue was one of the original Storytellers for the Storytelling Guild and alternated with four others doing weekly storytimes at the Medford Library Children's Room.  Sue was a favorite storyteller and was always bringing something of interest for our 'tots to five' group!   On occasion she would bring in "Jake the snake" who was a family pet Boa Constrictor for the children to pet.  Jake was small and lived in a cage in her son Jeff's room.  Always a good sport, Sue even let the Children's Librarian (me) have my turn at petting the snake!

For the first Children's Festival, Sue acted as the gatekeeper/ treasurer to take in the .25 cents admission that was charged to adults only that first year!  Children got in free.

Sue quietly took care of business and was always available to take on a job at hand whether it be doing stories, counting quarters, painting backdrops, running a booth with her own children, Kim, Jeff, Shannon and Meredith and giving encouragement and at the same time building confidence for other women.  She never expected the limelight, nor sought center stage but she was a star!  Sue traveled extensively serving as a mission worker for her church group in many third world countries and was always photographed with the children wherever she went.  She will be missed!  

Obituary For Gail W. Caperna

Gail W. Caperna   July 2, 1922 - December 13, 2012

 A Storytelling Guild Founder has passed on.

More than 90 years ago this last July Gail Caperna was welcomed into this world. In mid-December she bid us all a fond good-bye with her son and daughter, and dear friends Shanna and Veronica beside her.

We have lost (one of) our matriarch(s).

Words can't describe this woman, this powerhouse: storyteller and puppeteer for countless libraries, co-founder of the Jacksonville Children's Festival, charter member of the Jackson County Storytelling Guild, 20-year Girl Scout leader, oldest recipient of a BS degree in Theater Arts at Southern Oregon University at age 75, an extraordinary costumer for the SOU Theater Dept. and OSF, and teacher of creative dramatics when, walking with a cane at age 82, she toted bags of magical props and costumes to classrooms of children in local schools.

She had a remarkable creative influence on her four children. Reading defined her life and we revere the eclectic treasure trove of knowledge, through books, that she has left us. Her three grandchildren are especially grateful for knowing Jody in The Yearling, Sterling in Rascal, or May Belle in Bridge to Teribithia, characters experiencing rites of passage-often in nature-and now threatened in our postmodern, digital world. This knowledge, disappearing as our elders leave us, will be passed on to her four great-grandchildren and to all who treasure books and storytelling.

Full of curiosity, she wrote about everything she did and was a published poet. With her children and grandchildren, you could find her at a Yaqui Indian ceremony in Mexico, a fashion show in Italy, on a boat on Lake Meade, inspiring children with the Little Moon Theater at the Jacksonville Children's Festival, or hunting in the Wallowa Mountains.

Nature was a powerful source of her inspiration. Growing up on the coast in Bandon, Ore., she survived the 1936 fire that destroyed the entire town and her family home. An Oregon tomboy, she traveled with her father, Clark, a cattle buyer, and listened to his endless yarns and recitation of Robert Service poems. In the late 1930s she moved to California and worked as executive secretary to the Commander of the Mare Island Naval Base where she met her husband, Ron. She then returned to Oregon, settled in Medford, and began an art gallery in Jacksonville, full of watercolors of the coast, misty landscapes, fishing boats, and the Oregon woods she loved so much.

Obituary taken from Mail Tribune, 12/30/2012

Remembering names from the past

FROM MY HEART

Recently

 I gave a talk for members of my P.E.O. Chapter about my years as the creator of Fred The Litter Critter artwork.  I let the audience know that I was confessing an on-going love affair that had lasted for 46 years.... and his name is FRED.  It was a fun time for me as I passed around original drawings and printed materials from Festivals past.  I ended my talk by showing  my T-shirt quilts (2) that were made by my friend Anne Duncan.  She used the T-shirt fronts from all of my collection of shirts dating back to 1982.  There were no T-shirts before that time or I would have three quilts instead of two!'

It was a perfect time to pass around a sheet of paper to have those in the audience who had worked in some capacity at Children's Festival some time during the passed 46 years.  Of the 23 people attending this meeting there were 11 people who have worked with me at the festival.   Here's a list of those who were there to "sign in":

Mary Jo Bergstrom, Macaroni necklaces, Mother Gooseland
Carol Holst, Southern Oregon Historical Society's history booth
Robin Dressler
Valerie Root, Stage, l982-l986
Dottie Palamara, Face Painting Booth
Marjorie Overland, Kite Booth, 1981, Strolling Artists & Performers,  1982-1983 Festival Co-Director, 1984-l985 Properties
Bette Haberlach, Mother Gooseland chair,  Festival Co-Director
Peggy Tomlins, Festival Co-Director, Festival Properties, Festival Special Session
Carolyn Barrett, Festival Co-Director, Festival Properties.

Becky Versteeg, Festival Co-Director, Festival Properties, Festival Special Session.

CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL QUEEN FOR 2012

Queen Cecile McKee

CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL 2012 NOW IN THE HISTORY BOOKS

Karen Dailey, Judy Gambee, Queen Cecile McKee, Pat Blair & Cameron McCandless

Teen Volunteers, Sophie, Sascha, Miranda, Maia & Kaitlyn

STAGE PERFORMERS DOING DANCES FROM HAWAII

Queen Cecile in the Central Point 4th of July Parade

A NEW QUEEN IS SELECTED!

2012 Queen Cecile McKee

The Queen for the 2012 Children's Festival was crowned June 10th in a special ceremony held in her honor at a Queen's Tea which was presented by the reigning 2011 Queen, Cameron McCandless.   The Tea, held at Holmes Park in Medford begins Queen Cecile's year long reign.  Storytelling Guild members, Children's Festival Volunteers and their children attended the Tea and consumed tea, lemonade, cookies, tea sandwiches, tea bisbuits and cupcakes.   After the coronation ceremony was completed the newly crowned queen led the children present in her first "Queen's Parade" around the park.

She will officiate over all Storytelling Guild programs and Children's Festival activities for he 2012/2013 season.   This honor is bestowed upon a deserving member of the Storytelling Guild who has been active in all phases of the Storytelling Guild's many community activities.  She is recognized for her long and dedicated work on behalf of children in the Rogue Valley Community.

Fifteen past Children's Festival Queens were present to honor the new queen and to say
"welcome" to the " Children's Festival Queen's Society" ,  A select group of 44 women who have
served as Children's Festival Queen over the last 46 years.

Past Festival Queens Surround Queen Cecile for her first official photograph.

They are:  Ilma McKern, Pat Blair, Judy Gambee, Lynn Kellogg, Peggy Tomlins, Marilyn Gradwell,  Andrea Mobley, Linda Higgins, Janice Cox, Sue Roberts Dalke, Diane Newland, Karin Dailey, Cameron McCandless, Terrie Kirkpatrick, Darla Foley, and Susie Wright.

CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL-2011

 

After a very successful three days,
Queen Cameron closed the festival.

I cannot believe it's over!  

All that fun, and all that wonderful weather just 

FOR THE CHILDREN!

The 2011 Children's Festival's theme, "Read Around The World", encouraged kids to see, do, and explore arts and crafts and activities designed with children in mind.  The scene was wonderful to observe.  

I spent three enjoyable sessons at the Lost Parent's Tree and was fortunate to have dear friends from the Storytelling Guild and Children's Festivals past join me.  These were:

Karin Dailey, Lynn Kellogg, Sue Dalke, Cathy Theen, Becky Versteeg, Peggy Tomlins, Marilyn Gradwell, Bonnie Hall, Linda Higgins, Andrea Mobley, Susie Wright, and Darla Foley.  (I missed attending on Tuesday Morning because I was teaching a watercolor class). Former Festival Queens, Diane Newland and Karen Foster were sitting at Lost Parent's Tree location then.  

The tree, by the way isn't a tree at all but the sound tower for the Britt Stage.   It is perfectly situated right in the center of everything on the upper hill.  From our vantage point we have coveted center stage seating for the performances and looking around we can see the upper hill down to Storytelling Tree, etc.  We cannot see Mother Goose Land from there but Queen Cameron and her attendants stopped by to say hello and to tell us all was well in Mother Goose Land!