As many of you know, the Zimbabwean Music Festival is a not-for-profit event created entirely by volunteers! We thank all you Zimfest participants who volunteered and are helping with the many tasks onsite this weekend.
     Thank you to Larry Israel, Angela Marie and Joe Keefe for being crazy enough to believe it is possible to organize an international music festival while maintaining all the other aspects of your lives, and then finding ways to juggle it all and keep laughing! We could try to list each of their jobs but we don’t want to scare off next year’s committee.
     To each individual or community who is sponsoring a Zimbabwean’s visit to the US, we give a very big thank you! Without you we would not have this awesome opportunity to learn from and share music, dance and culture with our Zimbabwean friends!
     We say a deeply felt thank you for a generous donation of $2000 to defray Farai Gezi’s travel expenses! Everyone is able to enjoy Farai’s presence at the festival this year due to this person’s generosity.
     A very special thanks to Marilyn Kolodziejczyk for all her support and advice about visas and cultural topics, and to the Eugene community and Kutsinhira Center for sponsoring Beauler Dyoko, Cosmas Magaya and Musekiwa Chingodza!
     Thank you to Erica Azim and Mbira for sponsoring Forward Kwenda’s visit to Zimfest.
     To CSUMB, and their great Music Director Richard Bains, thank you for your generous sponsorship of this year’s festival. Richard embraced our organizing group and agreed to assist us in our planning process with the university, including very generous assistance with the use of CSUMB facilities.
     A very special thanks to Ross Thompson for convincing us that online registration is not only feasible, but also proving it to us and then keeping up with the myriad changes we have sent his way! We literally could never have offered the flexibility we’ve had in our workshop schedule if not for Ross’ robust online registration implementation and his continued support. Thank you Ross! In conjunction with Ross’ registration system, Betty Weiss entered all those requests from you, and kept records so we’d know who wants what when. WOW!
     To Teresa Bell, our site coordinator we send a big thank you. She knows what we’re supposed to be doing, even! Thanks to her you have housing and food and a campground and...

     Hats off to Jean Peterson for agreeing to be our accountant. She is amazingly patient with our ignorance as we blithely create our vision. Thanks to Becca Moeller for working with Jean to keep our dollars straight!
     Thank you, thank you, thank you to Graham Burdekin — our layout maestro, for taking cryptic information in bits and pieces no one “should” have to decipher and then producing the beautiful Registration Guide and Festival Guide without ever complaining!
     Lynne Swift stepped forward at the beginning and has followed through wonderfully — creating our Village Marketplace! We sure are glad she knows what she’s doing so well, ‘cuz it has kept us from needing to know all the details! Thanks, Lynne!
     Two more angels stepped forward from the beginning to help us believe in the magic of volunteer creations. We thank Ong Kar Walen for agreeing to be our stage manager all weekend and we thank Karen Howe for being ready to decorate our concert hall even tho’ she’d never even seen it.
     Thank you Clare Taylor and Karin Tauscher for sharing the task of coordinating our volunteers. Remember this festival only happens because we all create it together. Be very nice and say yes as often as possible to these very special people!
     Erin Ely took over the task of getting mbira bags made for the festival and is organizing volunteers for the Zimfest T-shirt, posters, mbira bags and Zimfest 2000 CD sales table for us. Thanks, Erin — say yes to her too!
     Cliff Warner is our sign artist! Thank you, Cliff!
     Thank you to each member of our marimba and mbira community who is sharing your instruments with workshop attendees and performers. Without your instruments, we’d all miss lots of opportunities to learn and hear music!
     Our hats are off to our inspiring advisors from Zimfest 2000: Maggie Donahue, Craig LaFollette, Jane Smith, Reed Smith, Marilyn Kolodziejczyk, Jerome Hobbs and Wanda Walker.
     We also send a very special thank you to all of you who willingly travel to California to join us in a celebration of Zimbabwean culture and music and dance. Our community is rich with the creative spirits of many hands! Thank you to all who help keep it happening!