Meet The Staff

There's an old saying that goes "when the cart's before the horse, behind every good man there's a silver lining". Well, it's something like that. Anyway, the point is that even when things stink, something good can happen. Maybe that's the old saying. I'll explain later. First, let's meet Irish Fest staffer Cami Travis-Groves.

Hi Cami. Tell us a little about yourself.

"Uh, hi. Cami here. I'm a migrant graphic designer who moved here about five years ago with my family. Since I found the fest, I think I'll stick around for at least another five."

How would you describe your job(s) at Irish Fest?

"They've convinced me to do some signage, and the program. It's fun to see everyone walking around with the programs and schedules and maps—remembering all our greathearted sponsors of course—and knowing that they’re seeing my tiny part of helping the fest. (Don’t tell them this, but I’d probably do most anything they’d ask of me!)"

How did you get involved in KCIF?

"My friend Kim (who’s now a permanent volunteer too) and I decided to go have a Mom’s day out, sans kiddos. Irish music? Sure. Love it. Let’s go to the Irish Fest in Berkeley Park. What? Supposed to rain? That’s ok, I’ll bring my $1.99 rain poncho from Wallgreens. There won’t be a crowd, and it’ll cool it off a bit. WELL... After schlucking in the mud for hours (having the time of our lives, mind you) I vowed to spread the word about just how good the music is, and how great the people are. So I sent a feedback email saying “we had a wet blast!!” But I guess they read it as “I’ll work for free.” (I’m glad they did—it’s been worth it!)"

What do you like best about the Fest?

"The sense of community it inspires. Being a migrative, this community thing is new me. I have been welcomed into the family I never knew I was missing. And I’m not talking about just the people who put it on, but the people who come to the fest: The amazingly talented musicians who live such vagrant lives. The vendors who long ago caught the bug and still need to share what’s Irish to them. The families who are curious about their inherited forefathers. Or people like me, who love the way the culture and the music moves them and can’t explain why."

Okay, now back to that old saying I so eloquently quoted. Cami wasn't entirely forthcoming in that little exchange. Here's what happened. During the disastrous rained out Irish Fest year of 2003 one of my jobs was to receive and answer all the Irish Fest e-mail. You can imagine that after we were forced to pull the plug on Saturday afternoon, we got a LOT of e-mail.

"How can I get my money back?" "Are you rescheduling?" "Are you going to pay to get my car out of the mud?" "Are you going to pay to get the mud out of my car?" "How can I get my money back?"

Then there was this one from Cami. She didn't ask for her money back. She didn't complain. She said she had fun, which was nice to hear. But she also said that she understood how devastated we all must be to see so much hard work washed away. She said we should be proud of what we accomplished, dry ourselves off, regroup and come back and do it again, that the city needed what we were trying to do. It was exactly what we all needed to hear at exactly the right moment. Cami's like that. She's not just our very talented designer, she's our cheerleader. She's never down, she's never upset, she's never discouraged. During the long haul to getting this thing done, you need somebody like that. Anyway, I answered her note back in 2003, and she foolishly offered to help. The rest is history, as well as that silver lining I mentioned.