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People rally Renaissance-style for kids
When Seda-Lotzgesell contacted Suzi Hempell, a Riverside seamstress, to buy a few Ren Faire outfits for herself, Hempell kept asking a bunch of questions. When she found out the faire raises funds for educating school-age kids, she pulled out a red dress she had been working on for herself. She humbly offered the dress to Seda-Lotzgesell unaware of just how perfect a donation it was. "I said, 'Red is so perfect because red is the only color that was exclusive for the queen,'" Seda-Lotzgesell says gleefully recounting the chance acquisition. "No one was supposed to wear red but the queen. We talked about it and she said 'Take the dress.'" The dress is now part of the queen's wardrobe and will be ready to rule court by next year. Another woman named AmyLynn Feek who sells Juliet caps on Ebay from her home business in Michigan called Renaissance Dreams, donated headwear for the ladies in waiting. Seda-Lotzgesell ordered a cap and once the transaction was finished, she called Feek to thank her and to order an additional cap for a friend. The two got to talking and before she knew it, Feek was struck with the generosity bug as well and insisted on donating 10 more caps for the ladies in waiting. "She said she wanted to help with the faire, but also with kids in mind and to benefit students," Seda-Lotzgesell says. "They (the donators) think it's important kids learn 16th century studies and it's taught in the classroom."
Others who contributed include Irvine's Karen and Kathleen Stafford who purchased one of the queen's costumes. "They purchased that to make it available for whoever played the queen," she says. "Her court is really important, too. A lot of donations are done for these kids." Their costumes were donated by Lynnie Snead from Moonstruck, a company that sells peasant costumes and accessories at the faire. Barjetto Winery is sponsoring the wine garden with all the funds going to the cause. And since there was going to be a wine garden, the Ren Faire crew decided to push their luck with the generous and see if they could line up the behemoth barrels, which they knew was unlikely considering their cost and size. "The wine barrels started as a joke," Seda-Lotzgesell says. She contacted Sonoma's Kunde Wineries' Andy Wilbanks. "I told him about the faire, explained the situation and sent him our mission statement. Kunde Wineries gave us 50 wine barrels. We went and picked them up. They cost $50-$100 each. That's a sizable donation." And the donations didn't only come from people and companies outside Big Bear Valley. Local lodges, including Timberhaven and Big Bear Lakefront Lodges are opening their doors the weekend of the faire to offer shelter to some of the faire's entertainers, giving up some of their most profitable rooms for the good cause. "We give them tickets and put them on our Web site where we have an area just for lodging," Seda-Lotzgesell says, explaining the group's pass-it-forward philosophy. "That's important to the Ren Faire community. We encourage that if someone is generous to us we try to give them something back in kind. We take care of each other. We try never to forget where we started, how we started or how someone helped us. I got stuck at a faire one time and had no money and some guy I didn't know gave me a $100 Š We always tell each other please pass it forward." Last year the Big Bear Renaissance Faire group passed forward more than $10,000 to local schools and students. [Archives] [World News] [Health News] [Financial News] [Current Ads] [Real Estate] [Place an Ad] [Big Bear Shopper] [Grizzly Weekender] [Big Bear Life] [Visitors Guide] [Photo Gallery] [Calendar] [Big Bear Valley Info] [Business & Services] [Professional Directory] [Lodging] [Licensed Contractors] [Subscribe Online] [Feedback] [About Us] [Big Bear Grizzly Advertising Rates] [Big Bear Shopper Advertising Rates] Copyright © 2004, Big Bear Grizzly Contact Us: [Publisher] [Webmaster] [Editor] [Advertising] [Shopper] |
