Chris and Susan

  Chris Deits and Susan Shinn are “soooo happy” to have won the raffle a second time!  (THEY HINT:  Always buy 2-4 tickets.  This improves your chances!)  Chris is a retired systems analyst and Susan a retired case manager. They say retirement is the best gig either of them has ever had.  They have 3 adult children and since they turned 70, they were blessed with 4 grand-children (3 yrs and under!) The couple loves to travel and has made the most of travel in the US and Europe during the last 15-20 years. Paris is their favorite city and their 2008 trip to Vietnam was their all-time favorite trip. From here on, any free time will likely be devoted to the grandchildren and travel may be mostly limited to jazz festival attendance.

  They live in the Seattle area and have been enjoying jazz festivals since 1999.   They say, that discovering festivals made a huge impact on the direction of their married life.  When they first attended festivals, they were among the youngest attendees – and did not dance.  At first, they attended 1-2 festivals, closer to home in the northwest region.  The number of festivals they attended steadily increased – as did the distances from home.  Now they are solidly in the older group of attendees, they dance a lot and Chris plays the clarinet at jam sessions as often as he can.  They have seen many changes and feel great sadness at the loss of 2 great traditional jazz bands; their all-time favorite, Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band in 2018 and High Sierra Jazz Band in 2019.  At the same time, they are enjoying discovering new bands – most recently Dave Stuckey and The Hot House Gang and the Rock Island Roustabouts.

  The couple has become increasingly involved in supporting the Fresno Festival by both sponsoring bands and by flying in a day early to help set up the decorations to get ready for this great event. Chris has worked on the more physical projects.  Susan selected, prepared and displayed photos on the big picture boards last year (Alfredo built them, Deanna painted them).  Their band and musician sponsorships and help with setting up has been invaluable.  Good help is always hard to find, but, in Chris and Susan the festival struck gold. 

  Chris and Susan say  “We have met a lot of wonderful fun-loving people on the jazz festival circuit. If we could encourage anything it is for each attendee to provide a contribution beyond the ticket price to help support any festival they attend.  Whether you can afford $5, $15, $50 or $500 it all adds up and will help keep the festivals alive.  Please, do what you can! ”   

  You will meet them as you enter the DoubleTree.  Please thank them for their support. 

It is people like Chris and Susan that make this festival possible.  They will be taking donations to send the kids to camp by selling our wonderful detailed program with not only the list of bands, but great information about Mardi Gras and our festival. 

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  The winning ticket was drawn in Chandler, ARIZONA CLASSIC JAZZ FESTIVAL on Saturday, November 3rd, 2018.  The winner was Susan Shinn and Chris Deits with the winning number being #2.  I am eternally grateful to all of you who  continue to support our festival not just by buying the raffle tickets but the friendship and unwavering support of our festival.  The monies earned are to benefit our Youth Program.  For 2019 we invited four youth bands to our festival and are sending two students from each band to the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society Tea Garden Jazz Camp.  Our goal is to continue to grow our Youth Program.  Thanks to your donations, our youth program is growing stronger each year.

   

Once again, I especially want to thank Helen Daley who allows us to hold the drawings  at the ARIZONA CLASSIC JAZZ FESTIVAL each year.  Thank you for your past and future support.  Hope to see all of you in Fresno for the  Sounds of Mardi Gras 2019. 

Linda

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Raffle 2020

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Linda raffles fifty - $50 tickets for a prize which includes the following:

 

Hotel Room for the Weekend

Four All Event Badges

Four Thursday Night Pre-Party Badges

Four Wind Down Dinner & Dance Tickets

Admission to Hospitality Room

Reserved Seating at All Venues

Invitation to Attend Band Meet & Greet

 

Purchase your ticket early for

Sounds of Mardi Gras 2020.

Drawing will be held in Chandler, AZ at the

30th Arizona Classic Jazz Festival  in November 2019.

Call Linda @ 209.534.1924

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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