History of Parktoberfest

Parktoberfest 2011

My name is Joey Gregan; I am the current President of the Arizona Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association (AZ-APDA) and have been a Board Member for the past six years. When I joined the board, I made it my commitment to expand the chapter's presence beyond Southern Arizona. One of our first actions was to develop a community event to bring awareness of PD and the role of AZ-APDA into the greater Phoenix area.

In the summer of 2005, I approached Linda and Robert Gabrick, owners of Carefree Station Restaurant in Carefree. They were eager to support our event from the start and so we began with the 1st Annual “Valley of the Sun” Wine Tasting. The Carefree Station provided gourmet food that compliments the varietals of wine served during the event. We also had a large silent auction display with donated items such as southwestern art, spa & golf packages, resort weekends, etc.

Over the past six years the event has grown in numbers of attendees as well as fundraising for AZ-APDA and the services it provides to people with Parkinson’s disease in Arizona. Services like “caregiver holiday” which allows spouses and caregivers to get a break from caring for a person with PD, or subsidizing specialty exercise classes, or ResponseLink. For more information on AZ-APDA the services they provide visit www.azapda.org.

The event has evolved into “Parktoberfest." In addition to several California wineries donating varietals, we have a local microbrewery and several fine ale distributors participating with selections. The gourmet food will once again come from Carefree Station and compliment all beverages nicely. Live music will be performed by Mark Florentine and the Tremble Clefs.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our website and learn more about our event. I hope to see you in Carefree on Saturday, October 29th.

Joey Gregan