With planning underway for the 2015 San Juan Bautista Mission Fiesta, the Fiesta Committee is looking for volunteers from the community to share their skills. This year's fiesta celebrates the 203rd anniversary of the Mission's dedication to St. John the Baptist. The fiesta honors the Mission's history and all the peoples, past and present — Native American, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo — who have made San Juan Bautista the wonderful city it has become. The fiesta is one huge "family" gathering, and helps to continue revitalizing our city.

The committee invites persons with organizational skills, historical knowledge, helpful equipment, artistic talents, and other such gifts to step forward and share their skills for the success of the event. Other volunteers are needed at the event to support the many teams that operate the fiesta. Would you like to join an action subcommittee to make things happen? It takes more than a hundred people to plan, set up run activities and booths, clean up and take down and put away. Working with the Fiesta Committee gives the true satisfaction of doing good for others and is a great way to meet like-minded friends. Don't let your good skills go to waste.

Fiesta 2015 will be held on Sunday, June 28 in the historic Mission Olive Grove. It is open to all with free admission, free stage entertainment, affordable food, free demonstrations and affordable activities. The fiesta is planned and staffed entirely by volunteers. Whatever is earned above expenses is dedicated to the reconstruction and repair of the 200-plus-year-old Mission and museum for the enjoyment of generations to come.

David and Diana Bruce again co-chair a blue-ribbon committee. Under their leadership, the committee will maintain the caliber and quality of the event that everyone has come to expect. The live entertainment, new games and famous chicken barbecue promise  to continue making this fiesta the major, multi-cultural, family event of the summer.

To share your skills and be part of this on-going historical event, drop in to the next planning meeting on Thursday, March 19, 6:30-8:30 p.m., in the Mission offices, 406 Second St., in San Juan Bautista. Contact David and Diana for more information at (408) 500-8353 or at [email protected].