Sarah Evans McCracken ’59

What began as an idea in the living room of Sarah Evans McCracken ’59 in 1995 is now a four-week summer music festival and music academy in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. For most of those years she and her husband, Dave McCracken, helped run the festival in Wintergreen, Va. “We began with $50 in the bank in 1997 and now have a budget of about $800,000,” she says. “I am just a patron at this time and loving it after years of scraping to keep it together.” Three years ago the festival hired an artistic/executive director, and the festival has expanded to include daily seminars, a film festival, and visual arts. The 2010 festival features nearly 300 events.