The First Annual Girdwood Fungus Fair was a smashing success! The event kicked off with the Fungus Fair Formal where a packed house of 130 people in their funky fungal formal wear enjoyed five courses of fungal decadence generously paired with carefully chosen wines. Mike Flynn, the new director of Food and Beverage at the Hotel Alyeska, did an outstanding job with the menu creation and the Byrne family’s generous donation to the dinner allowed for such a large and enthusiastic attendance. In addition to the delicious fungal feast, diners were also treated to an entertaining live auction by Paul McGuire and Brooke Edwards and live music by The Hot Club Nunaka. The hot item of the night was undeniably Joe Crusey, who generously donated a mushroom hunt to his secret spot. With both the live and silent auctions and donations received throughout the evening, we were able to raise approximately $5,000 to benefit future Fungus Fairs and the Girdwood Skate Park. The rest of Fungus Fair weekend drew a lot of fungus folks interested in learning more about the surrounding area fungi. Regional mushroom experts Dominique Collet of Sterling, Diane Pleninger of Anchorage, Chris Maack also of Anchorage, and Carol Hernley of Cordova lead several forays and shared their wealth of fungal knowledge through talks on various topics relating to fungi. About 45 folks turned out Saturday morning for the grueling 4.6 mile FunGUY/FunGAL Fun run on the Iditarod trail. Kids were treated to a great time with Katie Cronk in which they made giant paper Mache mushrooms, painted cardboard mushrooms, tossed some bean bags into mushrooms (of course) and many other crafty fungal activities. Around 15 people made their own “mushroom logs” using plugs of edible mushroom spawn with hopes of producing their own mushroom “gardens”. The scariest part of the weekend was the screening of the Japanese Horror Film “Attack of the Mushroom People”, where 55 people got the creeps watching people turn into mushrooms on the big screen in a room surrounded by mushrooms!
The success of this weekend was 100% due to the tremendous support of several individuals, volunteers, and businesses. In addition to those named above, the Fungus Fair Committee (Betty Charnon, Jonnie Lazarus, and Kate Mohatt) would like to thank the following for their contributions (in random order): Alaska Wildland Adventures, Alaska Wildland Conservation, Alyeska Resort, The Bake Shop, Carol Sanner, Camilla Seifert, The Candle Factory, Chair 5, Crow Creek Mercantile, Cleary Donovan, Double Musky, Forget-me-not Nursery, Four Valleys Community Schools, Full Circle Farm, Donna Garland, Girdwood Books and News, Girdwood Coffee Company, Girdwood Inc., Girdwood Services, Glacier Valley Roasters, Teresa Benson, Denise Dargan, Connie Casey, Kris Malecha, Heather Durtchi, Kate Chandler, Tamah Haynes, Girdwood Art Institute, Holland America Tours, Jack Sprat, Jeannie Palmer Originals, Jim Diehl Photography, Kathy Peters Pottery, Kobuk Valley Jade, Jonnie & Laz, Diana Livingston, Dr. George Mohatt, Mudhead Pottery, Pam Housten, Riley Cronk’s Shop Class at Service High, Ruth Kircher, Mark and Julie Jonas, Marlene Buccione, Sarah Cronk, Carol Hernley, Teresa Paquet, Tommy O’Malley, Leola Rutherford, Summer Stone, Susie Wrentmore, Skinny Raven, The Goldstitchers , The Ice Cream Shop, Third Eye Photography, and Z Denise Gallup. See you next year!