Photo courtesy Chamber of Commerce
From left, Janis McDonald, Lorraine Welk and Tim Hennessey chalk the outline for vendor booths.
Thank you to everyone who made the 24th annual Taste of Morgan Hill a smorgasbord of scrumptious delights. Vendors and visitors praised the exceptional quality of this year’s Taste not only for the perfect weather but also for the relaxed ambiance, the great food and local wines, and top-notch entertainment from some of the best musicians in the Bay Area.
It takes lots of hard work and planning by staff and volunteers from the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce to put on the Taste, a major Bay Area festival that took place Sept. 28 and 29. Morgan Hill Life would like to pinpoint specific people the public might not know were vital to the high quality of this year’s Taste.
First, we want to put a spotlight on Lorraine Welk, who served as the co-chair of the event with Chamber board member co-chair Tim Hennessey. Most of the staff and organizer’s of this year’s Taste were first-timers in putting on the festival event. Welk’s institutional knowledge provided them with the procedures needed to take the right steps to meet important deadlines in making this year’s Taste happen.
Chamber staff members Janis McDonald and Erin Machado also deserve hearty recognition for their many hours of hard work in taking care of organizational details. Both of them worked 10 to 12 hours a day during the weeks leading up to this year’s Taste. Also, let’s not forget volunteer Marian Tankersley who made the beer and wine tents so successful.
Hennessey and the Chamber’s president of the board Rich Firato brought a lot of fresh ideas to the Taste that made it a great experience for residents and visitors to Morgan Hill. The idea to devise a different layout for the booths and wine/beer sales tents created a good flow for the crowds to wander and mingle with friends. And keeping the party going with a three-hour evening concert downtown on Saturday night, featuring the music of the band Roadhouse as well as Shane Dwight, was a stroke of sheer brilliance. Many of the downtown restaurants did a thriving business serving the thousands of people who stayed to boogie to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Boy Scout Troop Leader Lynn Liebschutz deserves hearty praise for leading scout volunteers to keep the festival neat and tidy by picking up debris on the street and garbage that visitors threw away into waste receptacles. There are too many other dedicated volunteers to mention who deserve thanks for the time and energy they put into working at various important activities to put on the Taste.
We at Morgan Hill Life especially want to draw attention to Chamber CEO/President John Horner, who stepped in to replace former CEO/President Christine Guisiana when she resigned early this year. In the few months that he has headed the Chamber, Horner has revitalized it with a new spirit of serving the residents and businesses of the Morgan Hill community. He has created a good team of Chamber staff, volunteers, and board members who should be proud to work with him. And the overwhelming success of this year’s Taste of Morgan Hill reflects his innovative leadership.
