Sabine Harvey, Chestertown Tea Party coordinator, appealed for volunteer help at the town council meeting of October 6. Harvey said that attrition and the preparation and event workload endangered the future of the Tea Party and that more help was critical for the festival’s continuation. The town council said they would look into every avenue possible to assist and acknowledged the importance of the festival.
The Spy received the following appeal for the Tea Party organizers:
Can the Chestertown Tea Party Festival survive? That is the big question that has been weighing heavily on the minds of a handful of volunteers who have kept the festival going for the past several years. The short and honest answer is “NO”. If nothing changes, the Festival will meet the same fate as the Wildlife Festival, Art in the Park and the Festival of Trees.
The Tea Party Festival is not just some street festival. Did you know that it serves as a huge fundraiser for many of our local non-profits, churches and schools? This year, 26 non-profit organizations made a combined $80,000. Among other things, that $80,000 is used to pay church mortgages, fund educational activities and provide scholarships for our KCHS Seniors. In other words, the money that the non-profits raise is a huge benefit for the entire county. In addition, the thousands of visitors who come to the festival visit our local shops, restaurants and hotels.
Somehow or other, a few people have managed to organize the festival, but they have done so by assuming many roles at once. The people who do all the prep work are the same people who will be cleaning up tables and chairs from the Block Party until well after midnight. Those people are back on the scene about 5 hours later to get the festival set up for Saturday. They will be in downtown Chestertown until about 7 o’clock that evening when everything is cleaned up again. Totally exhausted, they report for duty once more on Sunday morning.
You may have noticed that the number of craft vendors has been dwindling over the years. This is a major issue since the craft vendor fees finance a large part of the festival. We simply do not have enough volunteers to give the vendors the kind of experience they find at other festivals. Therefore, they leave and go somewhere else. We certainly do not have the manpower to solicit new vendors.
We have the same issue when it comes to the parade. The parade has gotten smaller and smaller over the years. We can sort of keep it going, but once again, we simply do not have the volunteers or the resources to look for new entries.
We have now reached the point where, if only one person steps down from a specific task there is no one else to take over.
The Tea Party Festival is looking for people to fill the following positions:
- Treasurer (will have the support of an accountant)
- Chair and others for the craft vendors committee
- Chair and others for the entertainment committee
- Chair and support for the food vendors committee
- Chair and a small army of people to coordinate set-up, clean-up and other logistics
- Chair and support for the parade
- Social Media Marketing experts
- Person to design promotional materials
- Members for Fundraiser/sponsor committee
- Non-profit organization to run the Tory Toss
- Volunteers for the actual Festival weekend (2-hour shifts)
We have detailed descriptions, tips and timelines for all of the above mentioned tasks. If you are interested in helping out at the Tea Party Festival, please contact Sabine Harvey: [email protected], 410-810-3890
The video is of Sabine Harvey giving her presentation to the council.
Kevin Shertz says
My wife and I volunteered to several years at Tea Party after we moved back to the shore in 2005. Simply put, I personally stopped volunteering because the “leaders” of the organization (or at least those that felt they were in charge) were so obnoxious and unappreciative of people volunteering their time that I voted with my feet. Restrictions on who can be a vendor, what they can wear, and other nonsense, have stomped the life and joy out of the event.
Steve Payne says
Same here.
There were a couple of people that were involved who were very appreciative etc. but generally speaking no one was interested in what I thought about things .
Several vendors and people that usually went also told me that the performers line up was so much the same every year that they just lost excitement about it.
bill arrowood says
I worked for several years on the festival, and it is certainly something that was hard to step away from as i did not seem to be able to see eye to eye with the folks involved at the time.
Before i go any further, i want to say that Sabine is doing a fine job trying to make things work and had she been there when i was involved, things might have been different. She was not dealt a very easy hand and has worked very hard at trying new ideas and listening to people.
However, consider this, the Tea Party Festival has been in operation for nearly 40 years, it is the largest tourist weekend the town produces and has a huge direct impact on the local economy but it is staffed entirely by volunteers and barely raised enough funds to pay its insurance and talent, let alone turn a profit. It needs two things desperately, a new vision and a year round staff to bring consistency to organizing and implementation.
Downrigging weekend, by comparison, has the office staff of the Sultana working increasingly on this event all year and is considered to be getting better each year. Even though they rarely make any money on their weekend, the Sultana’s team knows the value of having paid staff dedicated to producing a first rate event. Volunteerism might be at the heart of this community, but when something is not your paid vocation, there is only so much time and effort one can dedicate to it and ultimately, the overall product suffers. The problem with relying for years on volunteers, is that you invariably you are left with lack of consistency as the keys to the kingdom gets passed down to whomever is willing, not necessarily able and after so long your volunteers simply burn out.
The Town & County, as well as local organizations that reap the benefits of the the Festival must help by finding funds for staffing, once established at a base level, this person could concentrate their efforts on numerous grants, and outside funds to reinvigorate this crucial town event. The person would relieve the strain of the board and allow them to thrive in the roles they are meant for, not trying to do several jobs all at once.
I love the Festival as much as anyone in the community, my two decade record of plunging into the river should attest to that, but I know, as sure as the Chester River is still chilly in May, that this organization is in need of an overhaul in the way that it does business and I hope that it finds the means and direction to do so.