An open thank you letter from PHW’s President John Barker to everyone who contributed to the 2015 Holiday House Tour:
As the dust settles from the 2015 Holiday House Tour, we have a chance to reflect back at how things went. Thanks in part to beautiful houses, great weather, and the Bough & Dough Shop, this year’s attendance looks to be among the best ever. This is only possible through the efforts of so many, many people, it’s hard to imagine exactly how many.
On behalf of PHW, I would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone who helped with this Tour.
To Joe and Julie Curran, George and Jeanne Schember, Richie Oram and Debra Johnson, David Look and Terry Frye, and Sandra Bosley at the Hexagon House, thank you for opening up your homes to a bunch of strangers. It’s bad enough doing this any time of year, but worse trying to do it during the Christmas season. We truly appreciate your generosity and hard work in getting ready for the tour, and hope that it was an enjoyable experience for you.
To Bill and Katy Wiley, thank you for a wonderful party house. We are grateful for your welcoming us in a home you have barely had a chance to get settled in to, and then let us bring all our friends. Your efforts, along with Chef Dan, provided for a wonderful evening. And now welcome to the neighborhood!
A huge thanks go out to all the decorators, docents, ticket takers, and everyone behind the scenes. We appreciate you giving up part of your weekend to help out PHW. Without you this weekend would not even have been possible. And extra thanks to everyone who comes back each year to help again and again.
We never get tired of saying it, but a big thank you needs to go to Sandra Bosley, PHW Executive Director, who usually gets stuck with not only hosting a house, but also directing, coordinating, and organizing the bulk of the event! The marketing, PHW website, print literature, and brochures all fall on Sandra’s shoulders each year, and she continues to amaze us with her ingenuity and expertise. Also thank you to the PHW Board of Directors who stress over this event each year as we try to get it organized, and then for your help in pulling it off.
Winchester Little Theatre has really stepped up over the past few years with the Bough and Dough Shop to make it a huge part of the weekend. Thank you to all the WLT members, and non-members, who helped out this weekend for the shop. It was again a huge success this year.
Everyone’s efforts have been rewarded simply by this year’s attendance. Your participation shows your dedication to the community and to PHW, and the success of this year’s tour shows how your community appreciates what you do, and how important it is.
Again, thank you to everyone for your help, and I hope you have a great Christmas season.
PHW Board of Directors:
John Barker, President
Mary Scully Riley, Treasurer
Kathy Cresegiona, Asst. Treasurer
Bruce Downing, Secretary
Ed Acker, VP for Education
Richie Pifer, Jr., VP for Issues and Advocacy
Doug Watson, VP for Membership & Development
Nancy Murphy, Director
Sarah Smith, Director
Martha Shickle, Director
John Flood, Director
Jimmy Stewart, Director
Sharon Collette, Director
Sandra Bosley, Executive Director
And from Henry Ticknor, President of Winchester Little Theatre:
Thank you first to to the PHW team of Debra Johnson, Jackie Tobin, John Barker, Sandra Bosley, Bill Tobin, Nancy Murphy, and our own Nate Windle who worked worked with both the WLT team and the PHW team. The Shop both inside and on the deck was well organized and ran smoothly.
Thank you to the entire WLT crew who helped with getting the Theatre ready for the Shop – Jim Daddio, Lynn Tedrow, Dolly Vachon, Donald Vachon, Bill Heavner, Shirley Echelman. Special kudos to Shan Kilby for the Christmas decorations that made the Theatre glow. A big shout out to Rhonda Morris for finding us a steamer so we didn’t have to spend a day ironing.
Thank you Kathy Morgan, Kathi Adams, Pam Bell, Linda Fenner, Joan Scorgie, Shirley Echelman and Dot Wallace who graciously helped in covering the shop and the WLT Box Office.
Thank you to Marion Cerwensky and Vonderene Swigart our costume mistresses who creatively outfitted the carolers. Amazing how fast they managed to outfit everyone and make them look great.
Thank you to our carolers – most of whom didn’t know each other yet melded into a beautiful chorus of voices. You did both WLT and PHW proud. Nancy Ticknor, Robin Pedlar, Michael Sweeney, Jim Huttar, Jerry Tracy, Bill Westgard, Melanie Miller and her mother, Tamson Stone-Conrad, Sherry Chapman, and Donald Vachon.
Special thanks to Amy Thomas who is directing the January show for her patience and willingness to share the Theatre space (and tables) with the Bough and Dough Shop.
Valerie O’Keeffe and Sally Anderson made sure that the Bough and Dough Shop and the Holiday House Tour were advertised as widespread to the community as they could muster. Thank you both so much.
Last but not least, thank you to Don and Bernadette Miller for accidentally dropping into the Theatre as the shop closed and staying to help with putting away tables and getting the lobby back in order.
And of course, thank you to everyone who came out to see the houses, attend the Preview Party, and do some holiday shopping at the Bough and Dough Shop. Without the community’s support and interest in this event every year to kickstart the holiday season in Winchester, the Holiday House Tour would not be looking at the milestone of 40 consecutive years in 2016!
If you have not already, you may with to give PHW feedback on the House Tour at Survey Monkey or the more open-ended survey by snail-mail to PHW, 530 Amherst St., Winchester, VA 22601.
This week, we have added a new album on Flickr with 71 photos documenting the “Amble Along Amherst” Holiday House Tour held in 2000. Some of these photos were added individually earlier, but at least 60 images have never been made public before. 
