Bear Fest Easthampton 2009

Bear Fest Easthampton 2009 is in full swing. On June 13th the Easthampton City Arts unveiled 35 artist created fiberglass bears in and around downtown Easthampton, MA.

On Sunday, my husband, my 2 dogs and I took a walk to view many of the creations with names like Ted E. Bear, Ursa Major, Bumble Bear (shown in photo), and Bear Hugs. It took us hours to walk the short distance because we kept meeting friends and neighbors with their families enjoying the bears as well. All of the bears are beautifully painted, or otherwise artistically enhanced.

In honor of Bear Fest, Mt Tom Ice Cream created a special ice cream treat and Opa Opa, the local brewery created a special brew. At Laurel Mountain Basket Company, we are featuring our Bear-y Special Gift Basket.

Bear Fest 2009 will continue through out the summer with city wide events culminating in a week-long celebration of the arts including concerts, an ArtWalk, and a gala dinner and auction of the bears on October 15th.

For those of you in Western Massachusetts, take a stroll around downtown. I guarantee you will have a great time. Stop for an ice cream at Mt Tom's or a coffee and pastry at Sunrise. Try the Sunday buffet at Your Way Gourmet, and while you are in Eastworks (that's where Bumble Bear and Astronaut Bear are), stop by the Laurel Mountain studios and say hello.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

The Easthampton Bear Fest 2009 has begun. On Thursday night Easthampton celebrated with a Welcome the Bears Party! a Mardi Gras themed party held at Eastworks and catered by Apollo Grill. Party goers had the opportunity to view the over 130 proposals and vote for their favorite. The judges are going to have their hands full. There are only 30 life sized fiberglass bear sculptures and every one of the proposals I saw was amazing! On Friday, a Free Family Welcome the Bears Party took place at Eastworks. It was an opportunity for kids as well as adults to see the unpainted bears, view the proposals and vote for their favorite Local artists were on hand to help the kids make their own bear masks. CREATE Children's Art Studio hosted a "decorate your own bear" day. Kira created cute "bear statutes" to give little artists the opportunity to paint or otherwise decorate their own bear. A special bear will be marching with the Easthampton City Arts contingent in the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Parade (want to be involved? -- contact Easthampton Bear Fest or the Easthampton City Arts for information) and on June 13th there will be Bear unveiling during Art Walk! The Bears will be on display around the down town area for four months and the event will culminate October 11 -18 with a week long celebration of the arts, a gala ball and the auction of the Bears! The proceeds will benefit Eathampton public schools art programs, Riverside Industries Art Program, provide commmissions to the artists who decorate the Bears and to help sustain Easthampton City Arts.At Laurel Mountain Basket Company, we love bears! Our Bear-y-Special Gift Basket is one of the gift baskets we are featuring for Mother's Day this year and bears of all sizes in our large assortment of baby gift baskets.

Food For Thought

The month of October is Adopt A Shelter Dog Month. Laurel Mountain Basket Company is dog friendly and we donate a portion from the sale of all of our pet gifts to several local animal rescue services. I also donate items I know the shelters need to continue to operate. Items like gently used toys, office supplies and laundry supplies. This year I decided to send an e-mail to our clients and let them know, that during the month of October, I was collecting items for the local shelter. I know that our clients are great people but I was amazed at the response we got.

We collected several cases of canned dog and cat food, a big box of office supplies, another box of paper products and laundry supplies. Blankets, towels, pet dishes, collars, and leashes, Hundreds, yes hundreds, of dog and cat toys, all of them in perfect condition, many of them new. Dog beds and three cat condos!

Well, it's November and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. To me, Thanksgiving means food and lots of it. We celebrate Thanksgiving with my sister and her family in Connecticut and every year she serves up a wonderfully traditional Thanksgiving meal. Everything from turkey to pumpkin pie with plenty left over for sandwiches for the next day. It was touch and go with the stuffing the first couple of years after she got married since she and her husband wanted to use their family recipe. They've been married now for over 25 years, so I guess it worked out okay.

We are very fortunate but we know there are many who are not. That's why I've decided, since collecting for the shelters was such a success, we are going to collect food for our local food pantry. From now until Thanksgiving day, Laurel Mountain Basket Company will be collecting non perishable food for the Easthampton Food Pantry.

Help share our good fortune, bring your food contributions to the Laurel Mountain Basket Company studio at the Eastworks building at 116 Pleasant Street in Easthampton any time. We filled our Toyota 4 Runner with supplies for the animals, I' m hoping to do the same for the people of Easthampton.

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!