What's newPlanning never ends for Board of Directors
The Grape Festival is a place where Lodians come to let their hair down. Kids ride the rides, adults sip wine and fairgoers of all ages sample the food.
But behind the scenes is a tireless group of men and women who work to keep the annual festival up and running, and manage the event’s million-dollar annual budget.
They help organize all the fuss and muss, so the only thing festival goers have to do is show up and have fun.
They are the Grape Festival Board.
Although the celebration lasts only four days, event organizers and board members never stop planning next year’s event.
“We’re already talking about next year,” said Grape Festival General Manager Mark Armstrong. “You have to, because some things take a couple of years to pull off.”
The Board of Directors is made up of 36 members of the Association of the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair, which extends membership opportunities to anyone living in San Joaquin County for a fee of $25 per year.
Board members range in occupation from doctors and lawyers to undertakers, teachers and bankers, Armstrong said.
Perhaps one of the longest-serving board members in the festival board’s 67-year history is Ole Mettler, 87, who has been part of the organization for 54 years.
“I’ve grown grapes all my life and it kind of transferred,” Mettler said of his decision to join the association.
Mettler works in the grape department, setting up the displays of grapes for the fair and said he plans to serve as a board member for as long as he can. He also acts unofficially as the board treasurer, a natural selection given his decades of experience as a chairman of Lodi-based F&M Bank.
Though there have been many changes in the Grape Festival since he joined up in 1950, Mettler said that the spirit of the event is the same and is glad to play an active role in the city where he was born and raised.
Bill Ferrero, who has been involved in the set up of the festival for 18 years, is serving his first year as a board member.
Ferrero works for California Waste Recovery Systems, the company that handles all the refuse and recycling services for the fair. He also plays the guitar in the band Stringin’ Along, which will perform on the Bank of Lodi Stage on opening night, Thursday, Sept. 16.
Though he currently lives in Stockton, Ferrero grew up in Lodi and used to help carnival workers at the festival by running errands on his bike. Now he looks forward to having a hand in helping the festival, though he admits it takes a lot of work.
“(Fairgoers) don’t know how hard it is to get that thing up and running,” he said of the work it takes to set up and then clean up the fairgrounds.
But, Ferrero said, the hard work is worth being an important part of the community of Lodi.
“You have to give back to the community that you live in and do business in.”
Members of this year’s Lodi Grape Festival Board of Directors are: Phillip Abeldt, George Barber, Henry Baumbach, Troy Bowers, Elmer Brown, Leonard Cicerello, Steven Crabtree, Carl Crug (this year’s president), Mike DeBenedetti, James Demera, Patrick Donahue, Bill Ferrero, Stan Foster, Wes Fujitani, Peter Hetzner, Tom Hoffman, Douglas Holck, Al Inman, Keith Land, Caroline Lang, Mike Locke, Mike Manassero, Steve Manildi, Mike McCay, Ernest Meier, Bruce Mettler, Ole Mettler, Victoria Mettler, Jean Rauser, Harold Rohrbach, Robert Schulenburg, Diane Steen, Donn Thompson and Gar Wright.
The 2004 edition of the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair will take place from Thursday, Sept. 16 through Sunday, Sept. 19.
Contact reporter Sara Cardine at sarac@lodinews.com.
