The Dee Wagner Spirit Award was created this year to honor the tireless commitment and creativity of our dear friend Dee Wagner. Dee’s grace, warmth, compassion, and dedication to the Brookfield Craft Center and the community of Brookfield, have improved the lives of others. The Dee Wagner Spirit Award will be presented each year “to a volunteer and an instructor whose main concern, while giving generously of his or her time, is with the minds and hearts of people.”

We are very pleased to present this year’s award to outstanding volunteer Julie Oakley and outstanding instructor Annemarie Ciuffini.

Julie Oakley has been a quiet leader working behind the scenes for many, years.
She was always there to help Dee with coordinating a community – actually, an army of volunteers – and she did so AS a volunteer. As many of you know, the Holiday Sale is a huge undertaking. Julie and Dee worked closely together to organize all the volunteers for the sale. Julie has that can-do, positive attitude, and her volunteers always had fun doing whatever it was they were asked to do. So much would not have been possible without Julie’s selfless and tireless help and giving.

When speaking with many of Annemarie Ciuffini’s students, they reminded us what makes her a most special instructor. She is always willing to teach an extra class – because her classes always fill up quickly. She never says no to teaching, even with a long commute. Annemarie never discourages any idea – even if it is far ahead of a student’s level. She works with her students, and guides them, to help them achieve. Annemarie is a master jeweler, and extremely talented. But, most importantly, she inspires her students to reach. Annemarie is not afraid to try and dare. She helps her students to take risks and to believe in themselves. Annemarie keeps her students laughing with her “dark” humor, and is always pulling someone’s leg. Annemarie brings her students into her land of make-believe – and suspends them in a world of creativity and imagination.