Meet Mary Lou Straka, Longtime ArtsQuest Volunteer

It all started with a T-shirt. Mary Lou Straka read about volunteering for Musikfest on the bulletin board at her local church, where it noted that volunteers would receive a free T-shirt. The rest is history. Straka has been volunteering for more than 35 years and says, “Now I have more shirts than I know what to do with.” She volunteers at a variety of events throughout the year, such as PEEPSFEST, SangriaFest, Oktoberfest and, of course, the most popular Musikfest.

When she’s not busy volunteering, Straka says her favorite part of Musikfest is most certainly the food. “I love the music too; if you don’t like what’s playing then you move on to the next place,” she says. A special highlight of her time volunteering was when she got to dress up like a yellow crayon in the ’90s—Musikfest is known to battle August heat, so she loved walking around in costume because of the fan inside of it. But she always looks forward to seeing her fellow volunteer friends and loves the community spirit. It’s what keeps her coming back year after year. “That’s the best part, reconnecting with people,” she says.

When she isn’t volunteering with ArtsQuest, one can find Straka spending her Friday afternoons at the Miller-Keystone Blood Center, assisting in the canteen by providing drinks and snacks to those who have donated.