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Board Members
Our dedicated members bring a wealth of experience and passion to the festival, ensuring its success year after year.
Meet the team behind the magic:
Patrick Rabby
President
In his four years volunteering with the Board for the Children’s Festival, Patrick has grown to love the festival, which brings together our exceptional St. Albert City staff, fantastic volunteers, talented artists from around the globe, and the wonderful children and families from our community that attend every year to
make it such a fun and heartwarming experience.
Kevin Jones
Vice President
Kevin is an educator and administrator with more than two decades of experience in the St. Albert Public School District. Beyond his work with the Children’s Festival, A strong supporter of the Arts, Kevin loves how the festival provides children with windows into a wide range of art forms and connects our youngest citizens to our community.
Danielle Mohr
Treasurer
As a more than 30 year resident of St. Albert, Danielle first participated in the Children’s Festival as a parent with her children, then as an on-site volunteer and currently as a board member. She loves the vibrancy and excitement that the performing artists bring to downtown St. Albert and believes the opportunities presented to children through this venue are priceless.
Justin Pesheau
Secretary
Justin has been involved with the Children’s Festival since 2006 in a variety of roles including as a volunteer, practicum student, and staff member. He joined the board in 2016 and has been serving on it for a decade now. Each year, he brings his passion for helping others and performs a variety of roles during the festival. He loves the energy of the festival and seeing the impact that performing arts has on the community.
Kim Smith
Director
Kim is a former TV news reporter, turned professional communicator. She’s been on the Board for the Children’s Festival since 2020 and loves taking her two kids to the event every year. Her favourite festival memories include introducing her kids to live theatre and meeting new people as a volunteer.
Ceilidh Hemmati
Director
Ceilidh has been attending children’s festivals since she was a child. Now a mother of two young kids, she has loved sharing the joy of the Festival with her children and, as they’ve grown, their friends. Ceilidh strongly believes in the uplifting power of art, theatre and dance and volunteers with the Festival to support its mission of making the arts accessible to the broader community.
Krimsen Sumners
Director
Krimsen has been an educator in the Public School system in St. Albert for more than 28 years. As an active community member, she has volunteered as a Festival Board member since 2020. She has fond memories of taking her own two boys to the festival (rain or shine), but also remembers attending the festival with many of her students over the years.
Maria Laycock
Director
Maria has been a resident of St. Albert for over 23 years, where she and her husband raised their three children. As the owner of a local children’s art studio for six years, she helped young people explore creativity through hands-on art experiences. She later spent nearly six years working to expand accessibility to the arts for children and adults in Edmonton. Maria loves the Festival for the way it invites children to experience the joy and inspiration of art and theatre.
Lee Ann Lagace
Director
Lee Ann played hooky with her kids to attend the festival with them. She loved to see the wonderment in their faces as they watched the performers. Now retired, Lee Ann is excited to be able to contribute to this great festival and help it grow so the next generations can have that same experience.
Director
Grace Boldireff
Grace is passionate about bringing people together through community events. Her background includes strengthening donor relationships, volunteering with children and animals, and championing programs that help young people thrive. She is currently working through her MBA while raising three young kids, which keeps life full, joyful, and wonderfully creative. Grace brings enthusiasm, curiosity, and a deep commitment to helping this Board grow their impact.
Director
Nitesh Sharma
Nitesh recently joined the Board and brings a ton of technological expertise.
Get in Touch
Contact Us to learn more about our exciting volunteer opportunities or with any questions you may have.