GETTING TO KNOW
LISA MARIE ANDERSEN,
CO-CHAIR FOR THE ANNUAL WINTER BALL
By Jim Meehan
I hope all Rotarians saw the full-page spread on the 14th Annual Rotary Winter Ball in the St. Helena Star recently. Should you be one of the few that missed it; the great-looking femme fatale
on the left is not Zeta-Jones but Lisa Marie Andersen, the energetic Co-Chairman of this year's Winter Ball. Sponsored by Andy Bartlett, Lisa Marie joined Rotary in 2002, and has been
making a real difference ever since.
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Lisa Marie Andersen
2004 Winter Ball Co-Chair
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Before talking about her contributions to the Winter Ball, here's some background on this super achiever. A real Renaissance
woman; Lisa Marie's achievements range from teaching classical ballet, and guiding river rafting tours, to studying pre-med at University of California and serving as Food and Beverage manager
for the Westin Hotel in San Francisco. As she explains, "I guess my wandering soul has been content with diversity. It applies to all aspects of my life."
The wine business brought Lisa Marie to the Napa in 1993 when she went to work for Chappellet Winery. In 1996, she went full time in National Wine Sales for Chappellet. But it was a chance meeting
when Lisa Marie met her future husband, Scott, at the counter of the Green Valley Café in 1998. They found they shared many common
interests, including dance and music, and shortly there after appeared together in a Community Theatre production. They married October 16, 1999 and Lisa Marie and Scott are now the parents of a
new baby girl, Olivia. Before becoming a member of Rotary, Lisa Marie had been to seven Winter Balls and she had lots of ideas on how to make it an even greater success. She helped Frank and
Joel Toller on the 2003 Ball, before becoming Co-Chair for 2004. As a new mother, she juggles a busy schedule. She estimates that
in the last two months she has averaged 6-8 hours a day, four to five days a week working on Winter Ball projects. A lot of time is spent working on the database, sending e-mails, phone calls and
meetings. There's lots of organizing to do with committee members, potential guests, Trinchero Family Estate coordinators, vendors, and donors. When I asked Lisa Marie why she chose to join Rotary over another service organization, this was
her reply. "I was impressed by the size of the organization, the diversity of projects and giving and their ability to produce successful venues without infrastructure struggle. I was in the mood to
participate – to ride on a bus that was already moving full speed ahead."
This Winter Ball will be special for us all, and a lot of the credit for improvements that will impact future years goes to a person that saw the potential and has put her heart and soul into making it a
success now and for the future – Lisa Marie Andersen.
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