TomatoFest and its trouble with funding came to my attention through a classmate, who showed me an article on the Post Standard website. I looked at the website for TomatoFest and found a contact number. I immediately called that number to do a phone interview, and I asked for an "organizer" of TomatoFest. The woman who answered the phone was an "organizer's" daughter, and she said her mom wasn't home, but she put me on hold and I heard her talking to her mom on another line. I got her mother's phone number, which I called right away. I got Mrs. Diane Bauso, who was very helpful and eagar to talk. She told me that the deadline was the next day, and they were still $15,000 short! She also said that the Festival would most likely be cancelled and rescheduled for another time.
Since then, I read in the Post Standard that TomatoFest is on! Through various sponsors like Wegman's and First Niagra Bank, the organizational committee of TomatoFest has received cash, reduced-fees, and donations. A business in Syracuse even donated $2,400 to cover the rental costs for Emerson Park! All these contributions made a huge difference and they have decided to go ahead with the festival. Apparently, organizers met on Tuesday of last week and decided that even though they were still short, the show would go on. TomatoFest will be held on September 8 and 9.
So I'm very glad to hear that TomatoFest will be held this year. I think it's really unfortunate that there wasn't a lot of support this year for a charity event like TomatoFest. Bauso seemed pretty pessimistic about sponsors. She said that there's a lot of need in the area and if companies start to give, they will be flooded by requests and it'll just be troublesome...so they're not giving at all. I have to wonder why there is more need this year than any other year. Still, with insufficient funding...TomatoFest will live to see another year.
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9 comments:
They should do a potato-fest... maybe with a Mr. Potato head contest?
yes! oh thank god i was so worried about tomatofest but now i can rest easy knowing it will always be there for me. what i cant get some attribution?
Hot diggity!
You say tomato, I say.. tomato. Well I guess it doesn't work with text, but I digress.. This turned into a great piece of work Gingey. Perhaps I'll drag the kids there.. Will there be tomato throwing? Would be a good time to work out some of this bootcamp aggression.
nice job rachel. I LOVE tomatoes..especially when you eat them like apples..but add salt. yum. a delicious treat.
Hear ye, hear ye. The "classmate" mentioned in this article is the great Jordan Meddy.
I hate tomatofest. I want to throw tomatoes at it.
my grandfather loved tomatos...this was such a touching piece for me, RAQUEL.
Do you spell it tomatos or tomatoes?
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