Arts & Entertainment

Manning the Pack, With a Smile

Rallying and organizing over 300 volunteers is all in the day's work for Kim Enzensperger, volunteer coordinator at the Sonoma International Film Festival.

Twenty-four hours before the start of the Sonoma International Film Festival and here's what Kim Enzensperger is doing: cutting badges, printing files, taking phone calls - sometimes all three at once.

With a team of 315 volunteers staffing nine screening sites and 10 different party venues Enzensperger,  the volunteer coordinator of this year's film festival, has to be pretty good at managing chaos.

A long time volunteer, she got her first taste of on the management during the festival's second year when disaster struck - all the volunteers failed to show up to work at Sonoma Cinemas. Without missing a beat, Enzensperger called up some friends and ran the show.  

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"That's when I thought, I can do this." she said. The next year Enzensperger stepped up to the plate and managed the next year's festival.

This year, after working as a volunteer for almost a decade, Enzensperger is back, managing the whole shebang herself- without pay. 

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"I told them I didn't want to get paid, I wanted them to make a little money," she said. "This year hopefully we'll be in the pink.

It's a grueling form of volunteer work; as the festival draws near Enzensperger, who sells items on Ebay for a living, works close to full time. Last October she began rallying friends, posting fliers and asking everyone and anyone to step up and volunteer.

"I also wanted some new blood...we just needed some new people who were really excited about the festival," she says.

Enzensperger recruits everywhere she goes: the post office, the supermarket. It's become a family affair - both her sons and husband work the festival, as do most of her friends and anyone she runs into around town.

"I love doing it, it's really fun, my whole heart and soul goes into it," says Enzensperger, who credits herself a mega-fan of independent cinema. She blames her good spirits on the festival's director, Kevin McNeely, saying "everyone who works here loves working for him because he values us highly." 

Her volunteers sing her praises. "She just keeps it all together," said first time volunteer Julia Regan, "She's just cool calm and composed and she knows that things will just fall into place - and they do."

Enzensperger, who worked as a recreation therapist for the Sonoma Developmental Center for 17-years, knows a thing or two about handling stress.

"One thing I learned there is you better have a Plan-B, cause you can have a plan-A, but when that fails you better have something to fall back on," she said.

Though volunteers work hard, Enzensperger tries to make volunteering a fun experience. "With the economy, a lot of people are out of jobs, so volunteering is a great way to meet people, get out of the house, socialize and maybe you'll meet someone who has a job for you," she said. 

After the festival, Enzensperger will turn her attention to planning the annual volunteer's bash and will return to her other volunteer gigs. For now, she's just keeping her calm.

"Sometimes I think about [managing everything] late at night," she says,  "But, yeah, I wanna do this forever." 

Follow along with the film festival through . Want to volunteer? Eszensperger is still looking for even more volunteers - especially "runners" and people who can work early (7:30 a.m.). Get in touch.


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