100 Years

This week Hallmark Cards, Inc. celebrates 100 years in business and all of us at the Kansas City Irish Fest send 100 huge wishes for another successful 100 years. Hallmark, as you may know, owns beautiful Crown Center where we hold Irish Fest every year, and (in the interest of full disclosure) has kept me employed for almost a quarter of that 100 years.

The story of how we came to be at Hallmark's Crown Center dates back to the dark days after our disastrous first year in 2003. We'd held that first KC Irish Fest on the banks of the Missouri River in Berkeley Park. After a great Friday night, somewhere between 9 and 13 inches of nonstop rain washed us away by early Saturday afternoon that year. We found ourselves $90,000 in the hole, discouraged and depressed. We even got a bill for damages to the grounds done by trucks trying to get out of the mud. In the local paper's coverage of the rain out there was a picture of Irish Fest president Bob Sullivan, me and one of our musicians. The caption of the picture mentioned that I was an employee of Hallmark. After the picture ran, I had a call at work from Hallmark/Crown Center executive Bill Lucas who asked if I was "the Regan from Irish Fest." Long story short, meetings between Crown Center and the board followed, deals were struck, hands were shaken and it's not an exaggeration to say that Irish Fest was saved.

So next time you require a social expression product of some kind, I hope you'll consider shopping Hallmark. Because Irish Fest has no greater friend or partner than the century old parent company of our Crown Center home.

Happy 100th, Hallmark!