Wilton Go Green Cancels 2012 Festival

Sad news for fans of environmental sustainability in Wilton—one local organization devoted to all things green has decided to pass on staging their annual festival in 2012. Despite successful efforts under the group’s collective belt the last two years, Wilton Go Green will not run another this May.

Jana Berktau, a Festival organizer and incoming president of WGG, said that the group’s past successes required a lot of hard work by a dedicated—but small—group of volunteers, who hoped to transition the work to new volunteers after the second year. Unfortunately, no one new stepped up.

“The work effort, the sheer number of hours that were put into it by a fairly small number of people became overwhelming to them that second year. In 2010, the success and the reception from the community was so wonderful that of course it was easy to do it a second year. In 2011, the reception from the community was great again, the attendance was as good as the first year, the partnerships were wonderful, but there was not an additional increase in the core group of worker bees. So, the exhaustion after the second year overcame the exhilaration of, ‘Well we did it again.’”

While WGG can afford to take one year off from hosting the event, they may not be able to survive without staging it again in 2013.

“The Festival is our fundraiser. We don’t solicit funds in any other way—we don’t send out a letter at the end of the year, we don’t have membership dues. We do have expenses, when we put on programs, we have fliers or posters, and we have insurance we have to pay as a 501(c)(3). We were able to raise money through the Festival. We may survive a year or more without it, but we may need to come back to that next year. We’ll see.”

Community response and support for the Festivals the past two years was high; in 2011 there were over 80 exhibitors and organizers estimated about 1,000 people visited the interactive exhibits, vendor booths and programs. Bertkau said she wouldn’t be surprised if people are disappointed with the cancellation, but added that hopefully, such disappointment might prompt new volunteers to get involved.

“We’ll see how the community reacts to the lack of the Festival, and regroup again in 2013. The word is getting out and people say, ‘We can’t believe you’re not doing it again!’ and I say, ‘Yes it was great, and come help us!’  But if it’s meaningful to Wilton, I though there will be people who will come forward and let us know, ‘Hey we want this to happen. We’ll help you and take a leadership role.’”

Bertkau said that people who haven’t been involved in the past but are moved to help out now that they’ve heard WGG’s need, are invited to come to the group’s annual meeting, Wednesday evening at the at 6 p.m.

“Our meetings are always open to the public, they are listed on our website.  Because there will be refreshments it would be great if people could RSVP at info@wiltongogreen.org  But we have monthly meetings, people are welcome to call me to learn how they can get involved. We welcome that—this is for the community of Wilton, this is for our town, for all of us to learn how to become more sustainable in all parts of our lives, whether it’s in our homes, in our recycling, in our gardening, in our schools, with our children learning more sustainable living, in our town buildings, or in our business.”

It might not be too late to organize something, if someone stepped forward to play the role of WGG’s white knight and volunteer to help organize a festival, even at this late date.

“I wouldn’t want to say never, that it’s out of the question,” said Bertkau. “We’d have to talk to the l, who was a big part of it. We’d have to talk about it, and maybe it could be scaled back. It depends on the individual’s enthusiasm.”