Our Favorite Mitten: January’s Volunteer of the Month is Autumn Maison!
So. Mittenfest. Mittenfest VIII.
You probably heard a fair amount about it this past month, and there’s still more to hear! Mittenfest VIII took place at Woodruff’s Bar in Depot Town Ypsilanti from December 27-31, featured donated performances from dozens of amazing Michigan acts, and raised — wait for it — $27,011 for 826michigan’s free creative writing and tutoring programs for students aged 6-18. These funds will benefit our many programs in Ypsilanti: the Washington Street Tutoring Lab at beezy’s cafe, our Drop-in Writing times at the Ypsilanti District Libraries, and residencies in four Ypsilanti public schools.
To say that Mittenfest is huge to us is, in fact, a huge understatement. It’s our largest single fundraiser each year. What’s more, it’s the culmination of hundreds of hours of work by dedicated people like (pictured above) Brandon Zwagerman (VotM Jan ’10), Jeremy Peters (SotM Sep ’13), and. . . a new addition to the Mittenfest team. . .one who has made a very large mark very quickly. . .and our January Volunteer of the Month. . .AUTUMN MAISON!
Autumn has taken onto her plate the very large job of being the Project Manager for Mittenfest. In this role, she makes what we understand to be a LOT of charts, graphs, and other helpful things to organize the many-armed monster that is coordinating a five-day music festival fundraiser. She also contributes to Mittenfest’s social media presence and helped build the shiny new mittenfest.org.
And just to reiterate: she does this as a volunteer. The depth and talent of the people who choose to volunteer with 826michigan is always astonishing to us, and Autumn is no exception. It’s all too easy to say, “we couldn’t do it without you!”, but when it comes to Mittenfest, we really could NOT do it without people like Autumn, Brandon, and Jeremy. We owe Autumn our deepest thanks for taking on the project of Mittenfest, so that we at 826michigan can focus on providing the absolute best programs we possibly can to the youth of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and Detroit.
Thank you so much, Autumn! Now go make yourself a cup of tea and take a long, well-deserved, post-Mittenfest nap.