Post Festival "Thank You's"!!

Now that the dust has settled somewhat on Kenosha Festival of Cartooning 2012, a few "thank you's" are in order!

A festival like this does not spring into being all on its own. It takes the hard work of many people working behind the scenes.

First,  my heartfelt gratitude to Rick Stromoski and the National Cartoonist Society Foundation for being our principal underwriter and running the charity auction and to all the members of the National Cartoonist Society who generously sent original artwork to raise money for children’s services in Kenosha.

Second, I cannot begin to thank the guest artists who gave up 4 days of their incredibly busy lives to hang out with the people of Kenosha! Thank you Dave Coverly, Greg Cravens, Norm Feuti, Michael Jantze, Stephan Pastis and Hilary Price - you were all a pleasure to work with!!

I would also like to thank Tom Racine for his help with the festival Kickstarter video, for moderating all our panel discussions, for having our back on all gadget and technical needs, for plugging the festival on his podcast, for making an awesome video about the festival, and all the other million little things he has contributed behind the scenes. 

Thank you to Mike Cope for being our festival documentarian and photographing every event for posterity. He shot over 3000 photos! As if that was not enough, he whittled them down to 240 dynamite shots and posted them over on facebook for us - tagging every single one!

I cannot thank enough the staff of the Kenosha Public Museum, particularly Nancy Mathews, Rachel Klees Anderson, and Gina Radandt for their tireless work with the show “More Than Funny” and all the events held at the museum.

Thank you John Bloner and Kenosha Community Media for being our fiscal receiver and for tirelessly helping with festival publicity and filming

Thanks to Judy Rossow and the Copy Center for the printing of all the posters and programs! 

Thanks to the Kenosha News for their great coverage and support.  

Many thanks to Paul Chilsen of the Carthage Department of Communication and Digital Media for sponsoring the artist’s appearance at Carthage, to Leonard Schultz for his support at Carthage, to Patricia Briggs and the Art  Department at UW Parkside, to Beth Ormseth, Jeanne Sanchez-Bell, Michael Schroeder, Robert Wells and Joe Savaglio for facilitating the assembly at Indian Trail, to Brenda Cunningham and Susan Rizzo for organizing the hospital outreach and to Jeff Stewart and Thomas Miller of Children’s Hospital, Dr James Lustig of the CHW Kenosha Clinic, and Ginger Heigl of Margaret Ann’s Place.

Thank you to TG’s Restaurant and Pub for sponsoring Thursday’s dinner for the artists as well as catering the auction on Saturday and thank you also to Marsha Caporaso for hosting a dinner for the artists on Friday.

Thanks also to my festival volunteers: Joan Quets, Sally Huck, John Bloner Jr., Josh Frazier, Tom Clark, Sue Larkin, Kendra Lange, Chris Feldy, Julia and Karel Suchy, Margaret Heller, Maria MacWillams, Jane Heide, Tsai Wei Udry, and all the other folks who pitched in at the auction.

Thank you to Josh Frazer for designing a terrific logo for the festival.

Thanks to Greg Berg of the WGTD Morning Show, Mitch Teich of WUWM Lake Effect, Bill Robbins of the Kenosha News, and Eric Gunn of Milwaukee Magazine for their terrific interviews with myself and the festival artists.

Thank you to everyone in the webisphere who plugged the festival and helped us make our fundraising goals - Alan Gardener of The Daily Cartoonist, Mike Peterson of Comic Strip of The Day, David Hurley of Don't Pick The Flowers and all the comic artists and friends who put the festival on their websites and blogs.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who bought art at the charity auction!! We sold everything!! And we raised over $10,000 for the Children's Hospital's Of Wisconsin's Kenosha Clinic and Margaret Ann's Place!

Thanks to my children for being largely self sufficient for the 9 months I took to plan the festival, and, finally, the biggest thank you of all to my husband John Hambrock for not only supporting me when I set out on this mad mission but also for designing every ad, poster and program while still meeting his strip deadline.

One of my primary goals with the festival was to keep all the events free and open to the public. This would not have been possible without the generous financial commitment of the following sponsors:

Principal Underwriters:  

National Cartoonist Society Foundation

 The Kenosha Public Museum

 The Kenosha News, Kenosha Community Media

 The Department of Communication and Digital Media at Carthage College

 The University of  Wisconsin  Parkside Art Department

 Jeff Weinfurter

Kickstarter backers and other donors:

Linnea Bakery

Coco's Attic

Bjorn's Clothing

Lori Kerber DDS

The Copy Center

Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Quets

Jennifer Brindley,

Tim Johnson,

John Bloner,

Suzy Glass,

Fancis Hybert,

Brendan Burford,

Amy Lago,

John Glynn,

Stephen and Elaine Azuma,

Tom and Anna Richmond,

Tom Gammill,

Steve and Tsai Wei Udry,

Mike Cope,

Scott Stantis,

Ed Held,

Patti Pomeroy,

Jim Shoenbill,

Bob Krohmer,

Alan Rozanski,

Brian Kelly,

The Chicago Chapter of the NCS,

Bjorn’s Clothing,

Beth Larsen,

Jess Barr,

Yifan Ng,

Andrew Shuping,

Robert Vallone,

Bruce Quast,

Darrel Bimberg,

John Kovalic,

Donovan Scherer,

Ryan Pagelow,

Keith Rose,

Alan Gardener,

 Jonathon Mahood,

Wendy McGuire,

Timothy Hanna,

Justin Liston,

David Hurley,

Tom Targos,

Mike Rhode,

Raymond Riethmeier

Chris Christmas

Ed Floden,

Joe Engressor,

Melissa Parkinson

Allan McCoy

Chuck Ingwerson,

John Rockefeller,

Andrea Denninger,

Gerry Mooney

Dawn Griffin

Terri Libenson,

Sara Thaves,

Elliot Kaplan,

Tom Racine,

Rick Stromoski,

Monica Jackson,

Ken Marciniak,

Eric Goldesberry

Matt Forcum,

Irma Eriksson,

Eddie Pittman

Tony Kinnard,

Piper Jacob,

DM Rolfe,

Sam Adams-Lanham

Alec Jokubaitis

Samuel Rebelsky,

Michael Fry,

Jeff Hopkins,

Ellen Abramowitz,

Mike Starr

Stacy Curtis,

Rich Desslin,

Sandra Lundy,

Kelly McNutt,

Tom Stemmle,

Mike Peterson,

Chris Feldy,

Keith Knight,

Nancy Matthews,

Ebba Johnson,

Katie Camosy,

Lori Bennard,

Lonnie Milsap,

Laura Damato,

Patricia Briggs,

Nancy Maczka,

Darin De Paul,

Dave McDonald,

Bree Berner,

Mark Thompson.

Kevin Williams

Ruth Penberthy

Roderick Christopher