6 minute read
VetArt
Brett and Patricia Keller This Events Team
Is Key To Strawberry Festival Success By Anne McDonnell
Vista’s annual Strawberry Festival on Sunday, May 29th will soon be here! It’s going to be a very big day for our community. There will be rides, games, live music, a 5K run, hundreds of vendors, great food and drink, and of course, lots of strawberries! The Chamber hosts the event, but it’s the collaborative relationship with Owner and Events Manager Patricia Keller and her husband Brett of City Gates Events www.citygatesevents.com that continues to make the festival such a success.
“We officially started managing the Strawberry Festival in 2015 as independent contractors,” says Keller. “We’re responsible for recruiting and booking vendors, managing the event’s setup, layout, breakdown and everything in between. A major part of our responsibility is to nurture and strengthen relationships with all of our vendors. We work hard to ensure they are showcased properly in a way that encourages sales so they keep coming back year after year. This frees up the Chamber to focus on branding, marketing and promotion, which creates a wonderful win-win.” According to Keller, the festival size and scope has nearly doubled since City Gates Events began working with the Chamber.
“Our goal for 2022 is to bring back the Festival’s full footprint and reach our pre-Covid 2019 levels,” she says. “That was our biggest festival. We had close to 450 vendors and the streets were full all day long. It’s all about rebuilding after the pandemic. I think everyone is ready to enjoy a party and have a really great time. There’s already a lot of buzz and excitement building.” Patricia and Brett are no strangers to event planning. They started out helping as “day of event” workers in the early 2000’s for good friends who owned their own event management company. Although it was a very long day, they found they really loved it. Soon, they were committed to learning everything they could about event management and Patricia began taking on more events for her friends. When that couple retired, the Kellers carried on but with a new business name—City Gates Events. Today, they manage several street fairs, festivals and curated art events throughout North San Diego County and South Orange County. “We love what we do,” she says. “We consider many of our vendors and clients to be good friends and we look forward to seeing them at our events. We like to provide a service that is a blessing to our clients so they can focus on what they do best while we take care of the rest.”
Keller draws from her time as an Active-Duty Marine and later as a Reservist for her organizational skills, sense of order and excellent time management that have helped her be so successful in this business. “I was also a busy mother of five and had to learn to shift gears, adapt and adjust as things came up and that’s exactly what I do every day at work.” Today, the Kellers live a walking distance from downtown Vista and love being part of the community. “We raised our children here and now enjoy seeing our grandchildren grow up here, too. Our mantra has become #communityconnectioncommerce to build on relationships across the spectrum (client/vendors/public) so
that everyone ends up a winner,” Keller explains. “It is an honor and a privilege to be part of the Vista community and the ongoing success of the Strawberry Festival.”
For more information, visit www.citygatesevents.com or call Patricia Keller at 760945-3758.
There’s a wonderful program dedicated to helping area Veterans in Vista and throughout North County to heal, strengthen bonds with loved ones and achieve wellness through Art making. It’s the Veterans Art Project (VETART). According to its website, www.vetart.org, VETART is a community-based arts organization serving Veterans, Active Duty, spouses, dependents, their caregivers, and the community through process-driven, Deep Arts Engagement, D.A.E.(c) and Art Therapy.
D.A.E.(c) with Art Therapy options provide a process-intensive arts encounter proven to help Veterans and Active Duty (some with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and military sexual trauma (MST)) find their voices and work through the life-changing process of transitioning from military to civilian life. Steve Dilley, Executive Director of the program says, “VETART believes that because of the deep social and emotional programming happening with members of the military community, it is imperative for some to access the time and the facilities to adjust to life outside the military.” Dilley, who is a former professor of Art, made VETART his full-time endeavor in 2015. “I see VETART as a form of artistic responsibility to help those in my community.” He goes on to say that Art making in a community setting goes directly to the heart of the matter. “This allows service members to create new connections with family members, spouses, dependents, and caregivers. I believe that wellness comes from a host of positive influences leading to stability in housing, employment, family and personal lives." To help Veterans achieve that wellness, VETART offers free classes in the process-heavy art disciplines of Ceramics, and Glass casting. Classes are available in Vista on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. VETART School of Ceramics and Glass, 2422 Cades way, Vista Ca. 92081 “We work tirelessly to connect military families and civilians through sharing Art-making in a safe, welcoming, relaxed, and fun environment,” he says. “This engagement is also equitable: we offer open enrollment access to free Art classes that take place in our state-of-the-art facilities, taught by Artists of all cultural/social backgrounds with and without MFAs. We offer Artistic support, development, and dignified display of completed artworks. These dignified displays help include the greater civilian community through artist/participant presentation.” A new program to support the display of Veterans’ Art is called The Pop-Up Café. It is a statewide, creative Arts engagement event with an emphasis on mental health and wellness for Veterans, Active-Duty, family members, caregivers, and community members. Events are made possible by the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission. The next Pop-Up Café event is set for May 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 3635 Market St. in Riverside, CA. Dilley also works closely with the DOD’s SkillBridge program. It is a three to six-month program for Active-Duty military members just before they retire and transition into private sector employment. Participants are paid their regular, active-duty salaries as they learn new skills and keep together in: public health, non-profit management, gallery management, and how to navigate advocacy and educational programs at the city, county and state levels. Participants also enjoy 20 hours per week of Artistic practice. The first program began with eight students in September. Dilley will begin a second class in early April and another at the end of the month.
Although VETART is supported by some regional and statewide grants, the organization is always looking for sponsorship partners as well as public and private donations.
VETART is made up of passionate people who care about generating mental “wealth” for our veterans, military affiliated, family members, caregivers and educators. Please join us!
Heals, Strengthens Bonds
By Julie Smith Taylor
